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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24354361">Notice</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/mawr_blaidd_drwg/pseuds/mawr_blaidd_drwg'>mawr_blaidd_drwg</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Closer [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Ball</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Lemon, Sexual Tension, Three Year Gap (Dragon Ball)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 09:08:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>48,803</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24354361</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/mawr_blaidd_drwg/pseuds/mawr_blaidd_drwg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He was close to her now; she could almost touch the static and tension between them. It was palpable and the hair on the back of her neck rose as he came even closer.</p><p>“If you’ve seen what I have seen, or done the things that I have done, then I think even someone as weak as you would be able to control your feelings, or better yet just simply not have them at all anymore,” he murmured not breaking eye contact with her.</p><p>The intensity in his black eyes shining in the darkened kitchen would have been a signal to most people to stop the conversation and move on, but Bulma was not most people.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bulma Briefs/Vegeta</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Closer [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1758337</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>110</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>246</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Noticed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a fanfiction about my favorite couple of all time that I started many many years ago. It started off as a one shot but I have since revamped and revised after recently re-watching Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super. This fanfiction will start during the 3 years and hopefully continue into Super. This is my take on how it all started between Bulma and Vegeta. How Vegeta was able to go from "I have more important things to worry about than that foolish woman and her blasted child," to "how dare you hurt my Bulma!" And more importantly, how did Bulma put up with him!</p><p>Please be so kind as to let me know if I should continue or not. Rating applies for later chapters. </p><p>xx<br/>-Mawr Blaidd Drwg</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bulma’s bright blue eyes shot open and she blinked herself awake a few times. It took her a moment to get her bearings and to separate her dream from reality. She stood up from her desk stretching her arms out over her head, her pink tank top rising over her mid-drift as she did so. She had been working on a training bot upgrade and must have fallen asleep at her desk. Her dream was a fleeting thing now, but she could distinctly remember Vegeta was in it and he was a lot nicer than he was in reality.</p><p> </p><p>She checked her phone in her pocket and sighed deeply realizing that there weren’t any messages. She wasn’t surprised, but it still irritated her that Yamcha hadn’t tried to reach out to her yet. Their latest fight was over 2 weeks ago and they hadn’t spoken since, she certainly would not reach out to him first. After all, he was the one who had started the argument in the first place. She exhaled deeply, blowing her overgrown blue bangs out of her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma needed a break from all of these training bots so she made her way through the Capsule Corp compound to the kitchen for a snack and came into a room full of chaos. Her mother was in the process of packaging all sorts of meals and snacks into capsules. She and Bulma’s father were going away on a cruise for almost 2 months and she apparently was trying to fix together about 2 years worth of food for the always hungry Vegeta.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh Bulma honey it’s a shame you can’t come with us!” Mrs. Briefs drawled on as she continued to pack the kitchen full of food. She had to make sure that Vegeta had plenty of snacks available or the poor man would go hungry! He had quite the appetite and Bulma would be too busy to cook for him all of the time.</p><p> </p><p>“Well somebody has to run the company while dad is away,” Bulma grumbled trying to push the image of spending her days lounging in a bikini on a cruise ship with bottomless drinks in her hand out of her mind.</p><p> </p><p>“Besides, then who would be here to babysit Vegeta and make sure he doesn’t accidentally kill himself while training.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh he is such a dedicated young man! What a wonderful trait to have! A great trait for a husband!”</p><p> </p><p>Bulma rolled her eyes as she sifted through a pile of mail on the kitchen counter and her mother organized snacks, desserts, and meals that she placed into refrigerator capsules. This was about the 100<sup>th</sup> time her mother tried to say that Vegeta would make a good husband. She must really be desperate for grandchildren if she was talking about the same man who couldn’t hold a conversation without insulting someone.</p><p> </p><p>She had to admit that she was grateful to her mom for doing all of this for her, though it would be better if they weren’t going away in the first place, but she understood that her dad really needed a break. A certain Saiyan houseguest was not making his already challenging workload any easier and it was stressing her father out. It was Bulma’s fault that he was here since she had invited him and the Namekians to stay. The Namekians had long since departed but Vegeta still haunted their home. Though her mother seemed to love that he stayed and Bulma had to admit she had grown accustomed to having him here and would be wanting for entertainment if he left.</p><p> </p><p>While her parents were gone she would do what she could to help ease her dad’s workload. Plus this gave her the opportunity to step it up and prove that she could handle the Capsule Corp workload for the day that her father decided to retire. She also knew that if she focused her time on helping Vegeta with the gravity room and training bot upgrades it would be the closest she could get to helping to fight and prepare for the Androids.</p><p> </p><p>Her friends and the z fighters all had their strength and were pushing their training to the limit. She had her intelligence and her best weapon would be to use it to help others. Even if that meant having to deal with Mr. Personality. If it made him stronger, it made their chances against the androids stronger as well. His dedication to training really was admirable. His work ethic was the most disciplined she had ever seen in another person. Especially compared to Yamcha who wasn’t training nearly as much as he had been when the boy from the future had arrived and killed Frieza. It had been almost a year since then and he had become a bit more relaxed about it, Vegeta’s intensity seemed to grow every single day.</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll give him that, he’s certainly dedicated,” Bulma sighed as she tore open an envelope with her finger. “If only he dedicated some of his time to not being such a jerk.”</p><p> </p><p>“Well then, where would be the fun in that,” Vegeta’s gravely voice filled the room as he stalked into the kitchen looking for something to eat. He smirked as Bulma looked up from her mail and stared back at him with her large blue eyes. “Who would you be able to have such stimulating conversation with then?” he added.</p><p> </p><p>“Ugh, get over yourself,” Bulma snapped narrowing her eyes at him as she brought her attention back to the pile of mail in front of her, and away from Vegeta.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh Vegeta! I sure am going to miss you. We will be gone an entire 2 months so I’m making sure that you have lots of food. We know you don’t really want Bulma to try to cook for you,” Mrs. Briefs giggled as she walked closer to Vegeta.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta flinched when he heard Mrs. Briefs talk. The volume and sound of her voice and the words that she spoke he was convinced were a direct assault not only against his hearing, but on his central nervous system. He had to get his snack quickly and get out as soon as possible. Thankfully from what the insane woman just said she seemed to be leaving for some time and his sensitive ears would be getting a break.</p><p> </p><p>“Last time she cooked something she tried to poison me,” Vegeta grumbled in response, remembering the traumatic experience when the woman tried to make some sort of “casserole” as the humans like to call it. He was pretty sure “casserole” meant throwing a bunch of ingredients into a pan and hoping it wouldn’t burst into flames. In Bulma’s case it actually did.</p><p> </p><p>“If only the poison had worked!” Bulma snapped back at him her cheeks flushing in embarrassment as she remembered the fateful day that she tried to make a 3 bean chili cheese casserole.</p><p> </p><p>“You two are just so adorable! What a great match you both are,” Mrs. Briefs squealed as she clapped her hands in front of her face. “Oh but what am I saying, I forgot about poor Yamcha! Where has he been? We haven’t seen him too much lately!”</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta stared at Bulma finding it odd that she didn’t immediately have a smart remark to her mother about her comment. He noted that her ki started to raise and that she was fixated on something in her hands. It irritated him that he was able to so easily spot her ki from other weak humans now, he was able to tell her moods based off of it too though, which certainly came in handy when having an argument with her.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma didn’t answer her mother because it seemed the answer to her question was directly in front of her. In her pile of mail were several tabloid magazines one of which had pictures of Yamcha with another woman plastered across the cover. The headline read, “Capsule Corp heiress, dumped for a newer model?”</p><p> </p><p>Her stomach sank as she stared at the pictures in front of her. Yamcha was out on the town with a pretty blonde girl and they looked more than cozy. It was true that they hadn’t really been talking, but to see him with another girl in one of these magazines was a slap in the face and humiliating. Sure, she hadn’t tried to talk to him either but this was a low blow.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma dropped the magazine on top of her mail pile and stomped out of the kitchen. She could feel her phone vibrating in her shorts pocket and knew without even checking it that it was Yamcha, probably having seen the tabloids himself now too.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta frowned as Bulma stormed right past him, not even looking at him as she left the room. He shrugged and grabbed several containers of dumplings and set to make his way out of the room, not wanting to be in Mrs. Briefs company any longer than necessary.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh my, these paparazzi really are so terrible! My poor Bulma,” Mrs. Briefs said sadly as she looked down at the magazine cover. “I guess her and Yamcha have broken up after all!”</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta was familiar with the Earth term “paparazzi” now, as he had already had a bleak encounter with such a rat when they tried to sneak onto the Capsule Corp grounds a few months ago. Every few months they seemed to want to exploit the woman because of her money, fame and status on Earth. Earthlings really had no decency or respect. At his home planet, such people would have been slaughtered without question. He didn’t understand why everyone made such a big deal about it when he tried to kill the paparazzi, they had no honor at all; no one would miss them.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta let his curiosity get the best of him and walked over to see what Mrs. Briefs was rambling about especially since it involved the weakling. He looked down and saw the weakling with another woman across the front cover of a book, confirming what he already knew from the last time he had been at Capsule Corp, he could smell another woman on him.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Bulma tossed her capsule to the ground encircling her aircraft within it, a loud sigh escaping her lips. She was grateful that it was so late in the night and even more grateful that her parents had already left for their cruise by now so she didn’t have to get the third degree from her mother in the morning. She was not in the mood to be harassed about when she was getting married, making her a grandmother or a million other things that would set her blood pressure through the roof.</p><p> </p><p>Capsule Corp was silent, not even the gravity room hummed with life, which also meant that even Vegeta was resting, a weird sight to try to imagine. The only time she ever saw him “rest” was when he was in an almost comatose state from the gravity room explosion. She sighed again, thankful not to have to deal with him either at the moment. After her long talk and final break-up with Yamcha, she didn’t have the stamina or the patience for a full-blown Saiyan argument.</p><p> </p><p>All the lights in the compound had been shut off since her parents were away and she knew that leaving a light on for her so she could see her way coming home was not anywhere on Vegeta’s priority list. The thought alone brought a small smile to her face at how funny that would be. She made her way through the building with one destination in mind: the kitchen. She needed some comfort food.</p><p> </p><p>As Bulma made her way into the dark kitchen, her thoughts seemed to catch up with her and she suddenly didn’t feel very hungry anymore. Tears that she had defiantly held back the entire night, for several years honestly, betrayed her as they spilled down her face. She crumpled into the closest chair she could find, not even bothering to turn on the kitchen light and laid her head in her arms on the table. Her long blue hair cascaded over her head creating a curtain over her shoulders and arms.</p><p> </p><p>To be clear, she wasn’t crying because she was sad or because she was heartbroken. She wasn’t even all that angry, anymore at least. Yamcha was in the wrong, he had strayed once again and even though Bulma would never admit this out loud she knew it was partly because she had pushed him away. They just didn’t work together anymore, and both of them were too immature and scared to end it before it got to this point. He wasn’t a bad man; they just didn’t work together anymore.</p><p> </p><p>She wasn’t sure when it happened, but she didn’t love him the way she did when she was younger. A few years ago she would have probably married him. What had gone wrong? She couldn’t put her finger on it although knowing his infidelity was certainly the beginning of the end, there was still more to it that she couldn’t put into words.</p><p> </p><p>Because of this uncertainty, this doubt in herself and her own feelings, she cried. She didn’t cry for him, she cried for herself. She cried for her wasted time, her wounded pride and mostly for her crippled ego knowing that he would sleep with someone other than her and that the tabloids had exploited it. Why was she not enough? She knew the answer really had nothing to do with her and innately it had to do with who Yamcha was as a person and his lack of loyalty and his own insecurity. After their conversation tonight, it also apparently had a lot to do with Yamcha’s insane obsession with Vegeta and his jealously that was so childish and ridiculous. All because she helped Vegeta when he almost <strong>died</strong> from blowing up the gravity chamber.</p><p> </p><p>How dare he accuse her of infidelity with Vegeta when he was the one on magazine covers with other women! And Vegeta? Of all people! The man who was so consumed with training and becoming a Super Saiyan to even properly sleep, or seek medical attention when he required it, trying to pursue <em>her</em>? She almost laughed out loud at the thought that he would have time or interest in her. She couldn’t recall a single time he said something nice to her, their discussions were civil in the best moments and full on verbal battles at their worst. Certainly not flirtation. What was wrong with Yamcha?</p><p> </p><p>She tried to control her tears now, anger becoming her most prevalent emotion. She was angry because she honestly couldn’t picture her future now although if she was being honest it wasn’t very clear even when she was firmly with Yamcha. Now that it was over though, and really over this time, it was hard to see forward. And that made her angry. Why should she shape her entire future around a man? Why had she settled for so much less, when she put on such a strong façade about deserving the best? She let her tears fall freely now and didn’t even attempt to stop them, her anger unleashing the pain she was feeling. She needed to let this out and move on. Rip it off like a Band-Aid and get on with her life. She would throw herself into getting ready for the androids, making more bots and upgrades for Vegeta. It would almost be worth it just to see the look on his face to see her making things for him without a proper argument.</p><p> </p><p>She also needed a pint of ice cream from the freezer. Yes that was it. Some ice cream and a good night’s rest and she would be as good as new tomorrow. As she lifted her head from her arms, she wiped away at her eyes trying to stop the tears and pull herself together. She ran her fingers through her hair and brushed them out of her face. She could do this. She was Bulma Briefs after all! She took a deep breath in and released it, still trying to fix her eyes and soothe her warm face.</p><p> </p><p>“Pathetic.”</p><p> </p><p>His crackling voice snapped into the silence like a matchstick flickering into a flame in the darkened room. Bulma jumped, startled by the sound.</p><p> </p><p>She assumed he must have been asleep since the gravity room was off and no lights were on anywhere in the complex. He also hadn’t been in the kitchen stuffing his face when she arrived. It was late, but also not early enough for him to be waking up to go training, so the only logical explanation was that he should have been asleep. For a brief moment she realized how sad it was how well she knew his routine.</p><p> </p><p>Her eyes widened trying to search for him in the darkened room, how long had he been there for? Did she walk right past him when she entered the kitchen and didn’t even realize it? Her face flushed in embarrassment hoping that wasn’t what had happened. It was times like these that she cursed his damn Saiyan ninja-like skills.</p><p> </p><p>He was leaning with his back against a wall adjacent to the entrance of the kitchen, his arms crossed over his chest and a grimace smeared across his face in the darkness. She could barely see him in the shadow of the kitchen; the outline of his sharp face only illuminated from the iridescent glow from the touch screens of the kitchen appliances.</p><p> </p><p>She mentally kicked herself. She never wanted <em>anyone</em> to see her display such weakness, but if she had to pick one person that she wished would have never seen this, it was absolutely Vegeta. He would never let her live this down as long as he stayed at Capsule Corp. The ridicule she was sure to endure would haunt her for years to come.</p><p> </p><p>She remained silent, not finding a dignified way to respond other than a string of profanities, which would probably just make Vegeta laugh, and make her even angrier. At the moment she didn’t have the emotional strength to verbally spar with him, he had caught her completely off guard.</p><p> </p><p>He moved slowly, his arms still folded over his bare chest as he approached her. The curves of his muscular frame were highlighted as he moved, the rest of his body in shadow. Why did he insist on always being half naked? Maybe it was a tactic he used in their arguments to try to distract her. If she said that she hadn’t done the same thing a few times then she would be lying.</p><p> </p><p>The silence between them was overwhelming, it had been too long since he last spoke and she had yet to say anything. She felt her heart beat thudding against her throat in anticipation.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta had finished showering and was lying in bed, unable to fall asleep, as usual. He had pushed himself to the brink again today, he was so close he could almost taste it, but something was holding him back. It was enough to drive him completely mad. Since sleep wasn’t going to happen any time soon, he wanted to go fix himself a snack when he felt Bulma’s ki approaching Capsule Corp.</p><p> </p><p>He smirked knowing that an argument might be just the thing he needed to help him get some sleep. He knew she had gone to see the weakling tonight so she would probably already be in a bad mood, which would make their verbal match almost too easy.</p><p> </p><p>As he was approaching the kitchen he felt a disruption in her ki like he had never felt before. It flickered and stuttered like the light in a flashlight from a dying battery trying to be smacked back to life. For a moment he wondered if she was sick or wounded somehow and it surprised him that he was <em>almost</em> concerned.</p><p> </p><p>When he came into the kitchen and saw her crying in the darkness it made him <strong>furious</strong>. He wasn’t sure why, he honestly couldn’t care less what was going on with her. This weak annoying little Earth woman who didn’t bat an eyelash at him during their screaming matches, who never backed down from him, even when she knew he could snap her neck and kill her easily and without hesitation, was reduced to a blubbering fool over a weak and pathetic excuse for a man. He knew it had to be about him considering that’s where she went tonight and after seeing her react to the paparazzi photographs.</p><p> </p><p>He couldn’t reconcile the image of the woman that he had come to know and dare say respected-not that he would <strong>ever</strong> say that out loud-due to her intelligence and tenacity, and this person crying in her arms over her mate.</p><p> </p><p>Humans were so stupid in their Earth mating, never taking it seriously anyhow. They used words like “boyfriend or girlfriend.” How was your mate only your friend? It didn’t make sense to him. Saiyans didn’t “date” they either killed one another in battle or picked their mate who was theirs for life. Humans had all sorts of strange terms and fickle relations with one another. Their lack of commitment and loyalty was baffling. The way the weakling reeked of other women and dared to even touch his mate was sickening.</p><p> </p><p>He needed to stir an argument up with her to see the woman he knew instead of this weird imposter that set him on edge. He could easily verbally rip her to shreds when they yelled at one another but he didn’t even know how to approach her right now, her ki still dwindling away. He felt himself getting angrier as each second passed.</p><p> </p><p>She had sat up finally and was wiping her tears away trying to pull herself together but her ki continued to flicker and she still hadn’t noticed him. At times he forgot she was unable to sense ki, because she had such a good knack for finding him and driving him crazy. He also had to remind himself she was just a weak little human because of the bravado she let off.</p><p> </p><p>Her eyes were glassy and her face was flushed. He didn’t know how long he had just been staring at her unable to tear his eyes away. He finally spoke one word out loud “pathetic,” completely startling her. He knew she was embarrassed to be caught displaying such weakness and he had to call her out on it. He also knew her wrath would be severe.</p><p> </p><p>But then she surprised him; she didn’t say anything. She just stared at him in silence, which disturbed him even more than before. Her cerulean eyes were so bright in the darkness of the kitchen and glistened from the tears that had overwhelmed them moments ago.</p><p> </p><p>His perpetual frown deepened even further, apparently not satisfied that she hadn’t taken the bait for an argument.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s pathetic to cry over such a weak fool,” he finally said cutting the silence in two.</p><p> </p><p>For some reason that clarification made her feel a lot better. Vegeta had not been calling her pathetic, but rather her behavior and her feelings towards Yamcha pathetic. She couldn’t argue with that. It may just be semantics but it was the boost that she needed.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not crying over him. I’m crying over the years I wasted and time that is lost forever. I’m crying because I can’t have a normal break-up like other people without the whole world apparently reading about it. I’m crying because I’m pissed off,” she snapped not sounding nearly as strong as she wanted to as she stood up from her chair. She unintentionally mirrored his body language and crossed her arms over her chest.</p><p> </p><p>“Seems pretty stupid to waste any more time crying about it then,” he stated in a factual manner and she frankly couldn’t argue with that one either. She really was in a bad state because Vegeta was actually making sense.</p><p> </p><p>“Well this is what people who are able to display actual emotions do. Not something that you really have much experience with since your emotional spectrum goes from grumpy to prideful to complete fucking bastard!”</p><p> </p><p>He chuckled darkly at this and the sound ran a chill through her body. Perhaps she had gone too far but she wasn’t exactly known for her ability to back off.</p><p> </p><p>He was close to her now; she could almost touch the static and tension between them. It was palpable and the hair on the back of her neck rose as he came even closer.</p><p> </p><p>“If you’ve seen what I have seen, or done the things that I have done, then I think even someone as weak as you would be able to control your feelings, or better yet just simply not have them at all anymore,” he murmured not breaking eye contact with her.</p><p> </p><p>The intensity in his black eyes shining in the darkened kitchen would have been a signal to most people to stop the conversation and move on, but Bulma was not most people.</p><p> </p><p>“Well Vegeta, unlike you, I recognize that feelings are actually not bad things that I should be scared of. I should welcome them to help me process things, achieve goals and have a more fulfilling life,” she stated a fierceness building in her blue eyes that had long since stopped crying.</p><p> </p><p>He smirked at this and replied, “And how is that working out for you?”</p><p> </p><p>She unconsciously uncrossed her arms and let them fall down to her sides.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Bastard. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>“Just fine, thank you. Yamcha is most certainly not going to help me achieve goals or give me a more fulfilling life. I’m angry, not delusional. I don’t need him or anyone else for that matter,” she spat back at him, turning her nose up and putting her hands on her hips looking very much like her usual self.</p><p> </p><p>He regarded her for a moment staring at her as though she were a puzzle that he would never be able to figure out even though he had no intention of trying. This argument was not going the way that he had wanted and it irritated him.</p><p> </p><p>The only satisfaction he had was that her ki, which had been wavering moments before, was now stronger than ever. If he was being honest with himself, knowing that she was moving on from the weakling also gave him a deep satisfaction, though he didn’t know why. Maybe it was the knowledge that he wouldn’t have to see his dumb scar ridden face anymore. That had to be it. Although he did mildly enjoy seeing how jealous he was when the woman attended to his injuries and gave him any sort of attention. Seemed hypocritical when he could smell a different woman on him other than his mate.</p><p> </p><p>He was close enough to catch her scent too, something he had tried not to notice. She still faintly smelled of the weakling since she had just been at his housing and it appalled him. A dark fleeting thought crossed his mind, what would she smell like with his scent on her?</p><p> </p><p>He immediately pushed that ridiculous notion away, though it hadn’t been the first time he had thought about it. As far as he knew Kakarott’s brat hadn’t told her that he had referred to her as “that gorgeous girl” when they were on Namek, otherwise she surely would never let him live that down. He would never speak it out loud again, certainly not in front of her, she was vain enough as it was, but she really was beautiful and not just for Earth standards. He wanted to punch himself in the gut for allowing his well-trained mind to go to these thoughts. He had never allowed a female to distract him before. Why was it that this annoying, shrill, Earth woman was constantly plaguing his thoughts?</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta hadn’t responded yet and was openly staring at her and her appearance, which made Bulma shift where she stood uncomfortably. She probably looked ridiculous right now after crying her eyes out in her black t-shirt and mini skirt, her hair not styled at all and in disarray around her face. She hadn’t exactly tried to make herself look amazing when she headed to Yamcha’s place tonight knowing that the conversation wouldn’t be a happy one. She felt her cheeks reddening once again; she felt embarrassed knowing that Vegeta was probably laughing inwardly at her appearance.</p><p> </p><p>“Not needing anyone doesn’t sound like a very emotional response, it sounds logical, something a Saiyan would say,” Vegeta finally stated, locking his eyes with her once again.</p><p> </p><p>She clenched her fists at her sides becoming annoyed once again and gritting her teeth together. And then he did something unexpected. He slowly approached her, his body closer to hers than he had ever consciously allowed it before. His lips were so close to her ear that the hairs on the back of her neck vibrated and she couldn’t control the shudder than ran through her entire body.</p><p> </p><p>“You can do better than him,” he stated simply, the syllables of each word tickling her ears and rolling down her neck.</p><p> </p><p>He turned away as quickly as he had gotten close to her, grabbed a sandwich from the fridge and stalked out of the kitchen, the scars in his back deepened by the shadows cast in the darkness over his illuminated skin.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma stood there, her jaw unhinged and gaping at the empty space where he once stood. Her body was still trembling slightly from the close proximity seconds ago.</p><p> </p><p>She wasn’t sure what shocked her more:</p><p> </p><p>The fact that Vegeta who never had a polite or kind word for anyone may have actually just given her a compliment… or the fact that perhaps Yamcha was in fact right.</p><p> </p><p>There was <strong>definitely</strong> <em>something</em> going on between them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Closer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bulma and Vegeta had found a strange sort of flow existing alone together over the first 2 weeks that her parents were away. They didn’t seem to argue as much and Bulma wasn’t really sure why, especially since their behavior hadn’t changed much and neither of their attitudes had suddenly gone away. Ever since the night she broke up with Yamcha and their <em>discussion</em> in the kitchen, something had shifted between them that she was unable to put into words. She couldn’t explain why but his acknowledgement that she had worth and deserved better than Yamcha had meant more to her than just about any other compliment she had before.</p><p> </p><p>She was also starting to see him in a different way than she had previously. Where she once only saw him as being a jerk and ruthless, she now also saw more positive sides to him, such as how determined he was and how smart he could be. Bulma found herself admiring his motivation, strong will and sheer stamina. It motivated her to want to work harder and do better with her own work. She also couldn’t help herself from checking him out from time to time, especially since she wasn’t with Yamcha anymore, there wasn’t anything to feel bad about. She also could have sworn that a few times Vegeta’s eyes may have been roaming over her as well, which she had to admit was a serious boost to her ego that had suffered a blow since her break-up with Yamcha.</p><p> </p><p>Up until now the only ways they seemed to interact with each other were by argument or conflict and she was curious what would happen if they tried to be more civilized to one another. Especially after how interesting their conversation was in the darkened kitchen that night. Her curious and scientific mind couldn’t help but wonder.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma decided that she would obviously have to be the one to start this transition to civility. If she was waiting for Vegeta to extend the olive branch, then she may be waiting forever. She wanted to come up with a plan to try and do something nice for Vegeta but the only things she really knew about his interests were how much he liked food, and how much he liked training. She decided to try to help with both of those things, by first completing some training bot upgrades that she had been working on and second by ordering some really good take-out from a barbeque restaurant that she thought Vegeta would enjoy, since he seemed to be more on the carnivorous side.</p><p> </p><p>It had all been set, the bot upgrades were complete and ready to go and she had dropped a lot of money on copious amounts of smoked ribs, chicken, brisket and sausage. Bulma sat at the kitchen table scrolling through her phone trying to catch up on some work emails while she waited for the food to arrive, actually feeling excited. This could either go well, or terribly but she was interested to see how everything would unfold.</p><p> </p><p>As if on cue, Vegeta walked into the kitchen after finishing his training, a glossy sheen of sweat glazed over his exposed muscular arms. He was actually wearing a shirt for once; thankfully for her, otherwise she would find herself getting too distracted. Though her eyes still wandered over his strong arms and tight shorts. She blinked a few times pushing her thoughts away.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta already knew she was in the kitchen having felt her ki before he walked in. As he entered the room he looked in her direction briefly for a second noticing that she was wearing shorts and could see her long creamy legs. He immediately turned away and acknowledged her presence by making a grunting sound. He didn’t say anything further to her and instead opened up the fridge to find something to eat.</p><p> </p><p>“No!” She found herself shouting and jumping up from her chair, nearly dropping her phone to the floor.</p><p> </p><p>“No, what?” He popped his head up from behind the opened refrigerator door with a confused expression on his face.</p><p> </p><p>“I mean, no. Don’t eat anything yet,” she tried to clarify.</p><p> </p><p>“Woman, I have been training for 12 hours straight. If I don’t eat something then you can’t chastise me for going on a murdering spree,” he snapped, turning back towards the fridge ignoring her and instead trying to find something in one of the capsules her mother had labeled.</p><p> </p><p>“I ordered some take-out,” she stated as she walked over towards the fridge, putting one hand on her hip and the other still clutching her phone.</p><p> </p><p>“This food is acceptable, I don’t need ordered food,” he grumbled as he found a capsule box that seemed to be labeled “steak.”</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta! Just wait dammit!” she found herself yelling in frustration. “It is going to be here in less than 5 minutes, chill out!”</p><p> </p><p>She heard him sigh loudly from inside the fridge. He grabbed a water bottle and shut the door glaring at her. “I don’t know what sort of weird trick you’re trying to pull but if I don’t eat soon, then one of the strange pets that your parents own is the first to go.”</p><p> </p><p>She rolled her eyes. So much for the civility. Although she did note that he didn’t include her first on his “to kill” list so that was a good sign of progress. Thankfully her phone vibrated in her hand alerting her that the food was being delivered.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s already here! See, good things come to those who wait,” she winked at him and rushed out of the kitchen to get the food from the deliveryman.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta stood there puzzled. What the hell was going on with her today? Why was she ordering special food? Something was up and he didn’t like whatever it was. Things had been strange between them for a few days. He found himself trying to avoid her, whereas before he enjoyed irritating her and starting an argument for the sake of entertainment. Ever since that night in the kitchen things were different. He had been kicking himself since the moment he got that close to her, realizing it was a mistake. She had been acting weird ever since.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma returned to the kitchen a few minutes later, her arms filled with boxes and bags. The smell that wafted from the packages made its way towards Vegeta’s sensitive nose and he could feel himself salivating. Whatever it was, it smelled glorious.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma brought everything over to the kitchen table, Vegeta following closely behind her wanting to be as close as possible to the delicious scent that filled the kitchen. She started to unpack all of the boxes and bags and Vegeta began to help her, trying to get to the food quickly. After a few minutes Vegeta and Bulma were seated at opposite sides of the kitchen table eating the assortment of food.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta made pleased sounds as he tore into the ribs first.</p><p> </p><p>“Try some of the barbeque sauce too,” Bulma pointed at a large container of dark sauce that was surrounded by platters of meat. “They have a secret recipe and it’s <em>so </em>good. I can’t figure out what spices they put in it.”</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta poured some of the sauce onto his serving of ribs and took a bite into it, nodding in appreciation. “Why have you not ordered this sooner,” Vegeta questioned after swallowing his food, Bulma noted that unlike Goku, Vegeta had table manners. Which made sense; he was a prince after all.</p><p> </p><p>“I knew you’d like it! My mom usually takes care of the food but I figured since they’re away we should treat ourselves. You’ve been working hard training and I’ve been taking on my dad’s caseload for the company,” she replied, wiping some sauce off of her face with a napkin.</p><p> </p><p>He paused between mouthfuls and stared at her for a moment wondering why she was being so nice to him, and why she had ordered food that she knew he specifically would enjoy. Just when he thought he had her figured out she always managed to surprise him.</p><p> </p><p>They ate in silence, Bulma eating a normal sized portion and Vegeta eating about 12 portions. She wanted to strike up a conversation but honestly had no idea what to say to him. It was all very strange, especially because she found herself comfortable in just sharing the space with him, even if they weren’t saying anything. Who would have thought that they could peacefully co-exist with one another?</p><p> </p><p>“What was your favorite thing to eat before you came to Earth?” she finally asked.</p><p> </p><p>He was in the middle of chewing on a piece of sausage and frowned as if he were deep in thought. He had not thought about food from the past ever before. It was not a luxury that he had to consider the positives of his past but this was an interesting question for him to think about the answer to.</p><p> </p><p>“There was a rare animal from my home planet that was sort of a cross between what you humans call a pig and a cow. The meat was tough if it was dried out and extremely tender if slow roasted. It had a smoky flavor to it. It’s similar to whatever this is,” Vegeta said pointing to the piece of brisket on his plate.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s brisket, it’s slow cooked for a long time to get that tender,” she replied.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s good to see that humans are able to do something right at least,” he smirked as he took another bite of the brisket that was drenched into the barbeque sauce.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey! Humans have gotten a lot of things right, thank you very much,” Bulma replied indignantly. “Besides, I don’t see you complaining about all of the amenities Earth has to offer,” she added.</p><p> </p><p>“You and your family are offering it, not Earth itself,” he corrected her as he wiped his mouth and hands with several napkins.</p><p> </p><p>“Right, but we are all human. Last time I checked at least,” she joked.</p><p> </p><p>“Well I don’t know about your mother sometimes,” he mumbled, visibly uneasy thinking about that insane blonde woman and her perpetual amount of energy and happiness that didn’t make any sense to him.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma laughed out loud at this. She couldn’t argue with that. Her mother was a special kind of person. She remembered how when they all first came back from Namek how her mother doted on Vegeta. He had been so uncomfortable with her following him around offering him drinks and snacks and thanking him for being a hero. In hindsight, she wished that she had video taped it.</p><p> </p><p>“I mean it would explain a lot. I really don’t know how she keeps up with that much energy and positivity, it’s tiring just watching her,” Bulma said in response.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta nodded in agreement. Silence filled the room once again as the conversation died down between them. Vegeta shifted his gaze to Bulma who appeared to be deep in thought. Her long blue hair had been pulled back up on top of her head in a ponytail and her bangs were side swept from her face. It was annoying that even when she wasn’t trying to grab his attention, he was unable to look away from her.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma decided not to push her luck too much by pressing conversation considering the dinner had been a success and began collecting the empty containers of food and throwing them away. To her complete shock, Vegeta collected his plates as well as hers and placed them into the dish washing machine. Bulma made a mental note to ask her mother if this was normal behavior for Vegeta or not as she couldn’t recall seeing him do this before. She kept her mouth shut, as difficult as it was because she didn’t want to tease him and make him never clean up again. Then again it shouldn’t surprise her too much considering he did have good table manners.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma noticed that Vegeta had a small smear of barbeque sauce still on his cheek that he had missed when he wiped his face with his napkin before.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta you’ve got a little…” Bulma said motioning with her hand to her own face mirroring where it was located on his face.</p><p> </p><p>“What?” he questioned confused by whatever it was that she was talking about.</p><p> </p><p>“Here,” she stated not really thinking about her actions and casually used her thumb to gently wipe away the leftover sauce on his cheek.</p><p> </p><p>“What are you doing?” Vegeta’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull at feeling her finger touching his face and backed away from her.</p><p> </p><p>“You had barbeque sauce on your face,” she stated sheepishly realizing that she had been too forward with her actions, not really thinking about it before she just simply reacted.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta’s cheeks became crimson and she could not believe it but he was actually blushing. He grumbled something unintelligible before storming out of the room. Bulma couldn’t control the smile that spread quickly across her face. Tonight had gone better than she expected. Though she missed the opportunity to tell him about the upgraded training bots. That would have to wait for another day.</p><p> </p><p>As Vegeta departed to his room to take a shower, he felt his hand touching his face where just seconds ago Bulma’s finger had been. It felt scorched, as though he had been kissed by fire and not by the touch of a weak woman’s hand.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~***~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Vegeta felt it. <em>The flicker of light within him</em>. He had felt it before, but this time it coiled and stayed in his body. This was it. This was Super Saiyan. He was going to do it. He was finally going to fulfill his destiny. He would surpass Kakarot and fill his deceased ancestors with pride.</p><p> </p><p>And then it was gone.</p><p> </p><p>Instead it was a loud chasm of sound and a magnificent blast of light surrounding him. Everything was so loud and then just as suddenly, so quiet. Darkness enveloped him and he welcomed it. It almost felt <em>peaceful</em>, something he had never truly experienced before.</p><p> </p><p>He couldn’t move his legs, something seemed to be crushing them or snapping them in two, and he wasn’t sure which it was. It didn’t seem to bother him, pain felt like a distant memory that he didn’t need to think about. The warmth of the darkness filled him like a soft blanket on a cold night and he welcomed the sensation.</p><p> </p><p>And then he heard her voice, and all of the lights in his comfortable darkness suddenly turned on, and the peaceful darkness was no more.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta!” She was screaming and he could tell by the way her voice waivered that she was crying too.</p><p> </p><p>He frowned realizing that her ki was almost vibrating because it was in such a distress. It had never felt so disrupted before, not even when the idiot weakling made her cry. It felt desperate and terrified and he wondered what could possibly make her feel such a way.</p><p> </p><p>“If you die, I swear to Kami… I will wish you back with the Dragon Balls and kill you again!” she was sobbing now and he could feel her shaking fingers trying to grab at his shoulders. He tried to reply and say something snarky to her but he was unable to open his mouth, his eyes were still closed too. He couldn’t see anything but he could feel and hear everything.</p><p> </p><p>He started to fade into the darkness again it felt so much better than existing and enduring failure after failure.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta please, don’t leave me,” she sounded more desperate than before, her voice completely overwhelmed by the sobs coming out of her mouth at the same time as her voice. “We need you here. You need to fight the androids. You need to become a Super Saiyan. You need to be here and piss me off and drive me crazy, or I don’t know what else I am going to do.”</p><p> </p><p>“You talk too much,” he whispered weakly before he slipped into the darkness.</p><p> </p><p>Consciousness suddenly gripped him from the quiet darkness with claws that felt like blades searing into his flesh. Everything hurt. From the bottoms of his toes to the hairs of his black flame shaped hair. Pain was something that Vegeta felt so often that it would be weird not to feel it. But this particular pain was quite burdensome. He mustered all of his strength to turn his head and of course <em>she</em> was there. Just like she had been the first time he had injured himself and he woke to see her sleeping at a desk near his bedside. This time, she was sitting at a desk a little bit further away, working on a computer.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta pulled the oxygen mask that had been covering his face off, and let it hang off of the side of the bed.</p><p> </p><p>“What happened?” His voice croaked uneasily as if he had never used it before.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma shot up from the chair she was sitting in and hurried over to his bedside to check on him. He was blinking his eyes open and taking in his surroundings.</p><p> </p><p>“There was an explosion in the gravity chamber,” Bulma said softly. “Your energy level must have been through the roof and you created a wave of energy that you were unable to control. Energy blasts started flying everywhere and messed with the electrical circuit. It caused an explosion that shot out at you from underneath and trapped your legs under the metal and concrete of the gravity chamber floor.”</p><p> </p><p>If Vegeta had been able to move properly he would have been clenching his fists in irritation, instead he gritted his teeth. He had been close, but he had to figure out how to contain the energy, as it was too powerful. He could harness the power but he couldn’t control it yet.</p><p> </p><p>“Why are you staying here?” Vegeta questioned noticing that she had her laptop, a bunch of folders of papers, several mugs that had once held coffee all sitting on a small desk near his bedside. She had been here for some time if she had decided to create a make-shift office.</p><p> </p><p>“To make sure that you’re okay,” she replied quietly and honestly.</p><p> </p><p>What she didn’t tell him was how much he had scared her. More than the first time the room had been blown apart. She wasn’t just worried about his physical and emotional health but she was worried about her own feelings of losing him. She hadn’t realized that she would even feel that way until she was in the middle of it.</p><p> </p><p>He didn’t know about the tears that had flowed down her face when he was unconscious. About the horror she felt from seeing the bones from his legs snapped and sticking out of his flesh. The amount of blood that was all over him, and all over her as she tried in vain to help him. She normally would have screamed and wailed about how gross the blood was and wouldn’t have wanted to touch him, but her thoughts hadn’t even gone there. Her body immediately reacted and knew that saving him was more important than any of that. Bulma didn’t have her parents here to help her, she had to figure it out all on her own and thankfully she had. She had summoned strength deep within her that she didn’t really know that she possessed to get him upright and fixed into the medical bot to bring him up to the hospital bed. She had called the top doctors in the world to come and assist and aid him. All of them couldn’t comprehend that he hadn’t died from the electrocution, let alone the concrete and metal crushing his legs.</p><p> </p><p>Both of his legs were broken and he had suffered a great deal of blood loss, even for Saiyan standards. Luckily she had the latest tech gear in medical science and the doctors she had called patched him up as best as possible. He would be on the mend relatively quickly, especially since Saiyans healed quicker than humans did. She didn’t know how to tell him that he wouldn’t be able to train for at the very least a week.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m fine, you’re over exaggerating,” Vegeta stated with annoyance, though vaguely looking down and seeing his legs completely wrapped around white casts and his abdomen was covered in bandages.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta, you almost died,” she whispered and she willed away the tears that were starting to form in her eyes at the memory of him falling limp in her arms.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t be ridiculous,” he spat at her, his anger brewing inside of him.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not being ridiculous, you are! You are pushing too hard, Vegeta! You won’t be able to become a Super Saiyan if you’re dead,” she snapped at him. Only Vegeta could manage to make her want to punch him while he was in a hospital bed unable to walk. “You have been unconscious for 3 days,” she added, placing her hands on her hips.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta’s eyes widened slightly at this. He hadn’t realized he had lost that much time. It seemed like just minutes ago he was in the gravity chamber. For a split second he swelled with pride that it was his own energy and power that had the ability to injure him so badly, not someone else’s at least. It also meant that he had to work on controlling that power and energy.</p><p> </p><p>“I need to get up and train,” he stated as he attempted to sit upright and get himself out of the bed.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta, If you try to stand up right now I will press this button 10 times and I will send a fuck ton of drugs that are powerful enough to knock even the prince of all Saiyans out and force you to rest.”</p><p> </p><p>Bulma was towering over him and spoke very calmly not in her usually shrieking manner. She was holding a button that was attached to a wire that went straight to the IV bag hooked up to his arm and inserted into his vein.</p><p> </p><p>“So, you have 2 choices. 1, you actually listen to me for the first time possibly ever and rest. Or 2, you get knocked unconscious by strong drugs,” she stated simply.</p><p> </p><p>His eyes widened as he saw the look of determination across her face, it was almost scary. “I learned from last time,” Bulma added with a smirk on her face.</p><p> </p><p>“Well if I’m unconscious at least I don’t have to listen to your annoying voice,” Vegeta snapped angrily hoping his statement would remove the smug look off of her face.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re such a jerk! I think I prefer you unconscious anyway! This was the most peaceful 3 days I’ve had since you arrived!” she shouted at him putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him. It was a complete lie of course that she had 3 days of peace when in reality she dealt with a complete nightmare, but she didn’t care.</p><p> </p><p>It was amazing how her mood could go from 0-60 just like that. He marveled at her for a moment. “Well then put me out of my misery!” he shouted back at her.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma rolled her eyes, and pushed the button twice to send some of the pain medication into the IV. She knew if she gave him the option to do it himself that he would just sit there and suffer. She dropped the button she had been holding, she crossed her arms over her chest as she chewed on her lip.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta, I’m being serious. You need to take better care of yourself or you are really going to end up killing yourself,” she said softly before she walked back over to her desk.</p><p> </p><p>“Whatever,” he grumbled though he wasn’t sure why she cared in the first place what happened to him. He felt the drugs start to kick in and the numbness that swirled in his body was a welcome distraction from the searing pain he had been in since his eyes had opened a few minutes ago. He felt that cold darkness gripping him again, greeting it like an old friend.</p><p> </p><p>“S’not like it matters anyways,” he mumbled sleepily slurring his words as his eyes started to close, the pain that had kept him awake blurring into the background. Bulma’s concerned bright blue eyes were fading away from him. He felt like he was drifting in an ocean, being carried away from the shore.</p><p> </p><p>“It matters to me,” Bulma whispered not realizing that Vegeta was still awake and heard her.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>It matters to me.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>He let each word sink into his veins like the drugs had and it warmed his entire body as he drifted away.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Woman, I stayed in that fucking hospital bed for 5 days longer than I needed to!” Vegeta yelled as he stood in the middle of the newly renovated gravity room.</p><p> </p><p>It had been a grueling 5 days with him. It was the grumpiest she had ever seen him and his mood had been so sour that she considered taking some of his pain medication just so that she could put up with him. It was the longest time they had spent together, Bulma having brought up her workload to the room. She slept in her own bed at night when she gave him enough drugs to knock him unconscious but even then she spent most of the night worrying that he would magically wake up and try to go training. The only positive was that Bulma had gotten Vegeta into some television shows since he wasn’t able to do much else. It was funny to watch Vegeta doing such a normal human thing, binge watching TV shows and movies. He pretended to not be interested or involved at all, but the moment that Netflix asked if he was still watching, he screamed at the television “well what the fuck else am I doing, you blasted machine!”</p><p> </p><p>Today while Bulma had gone down to the kitchen to get some food for them both, he had torn off the bandages as well as the casts that had surrounded his shattered legs. Bulma realized he was gone when she came back up to the room and found an empty bed.</p><p> </p><p>He had mended just fine and was ready to resume training, Bulma however did not agree with him and refused to turn the gravity room back on.</p><p> </p><p>“No, you did not stay as long as I told you to! I said a week. That’s 7 days Vegeta, not 5! Or did the electrical shock render you unable to count properly?” Bulma screamed back at him.</p><p> </p><p>“Just because your race is weak and pathetic and can’t handle injuries does not mean that you have to take it out on me! I am fine, I will resume my training effective immediately!”</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta you are being ridiculous!” Bulma yelled in annoyance, practically throwing her arms up in the air.</p><p> </p><p>“Just let me be! If I get injured, I get injured! Why do you give a shit what happens to me anyhow?”</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t know, but for some reason I do!” she replied her voice starting off loud and getting quieter with each passing word. She folded her arms in front of her chest. He frowned at her, not expecting her response to be so simple.</p><p> </p><p>“Well do yourself a favor and don’t,” he snapped at her, finding it incredulous that his well being mattered to her at all.</p><p> </p><p>“Why is it so difficult for you to understand that somebody actually cares if something happens to you?” she finally asked.</p><p> </p><p>“Just shut up,” Vegeta’s voice became crisp and clear, his tone signaling to her that he was not going to discuss this any further with her. She had hit a deep wound, but she wasn’t even really sure why. Why was he so angry with her for caring about what happened to him?</p><p> </p><p>He resembled a wounded animal caught in a trap, biting and gnashing its teeth at anyone who tried to help them.</p><p> </p><p>“I know that becoming a Super Saiyan means everything to you. I just don’t understand why you are willing to seriously hurt yourself or die to get there,” Bulma tried to say gently.</p><p> </p><p>“You don’t know a thing about it,” he snarled at her. “You live a perfectly sheltered life here, any tragedy you may have actually experienced was easily remedied with magical Dragon Balls. You don’t know a thing about loss, or wanting something so badly that you would rather die than live with the shame of not achieving it!”</p><p> </p><p>She flinched at his words and looked away from his intense, rage filled gaze. The worst part was, he was right. She had no idea what he was going through and never would. She did realize though that this was the most he had ever shared with her, and the most real emotion she had seen from him.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re right,” she replied quietly.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta’s mouth, which had been slightly parted and ready to unleash a fury of anger-fueled remarks, closed immediately. He hadn’t been expecting that as her response.</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t know anything about it, and I’m not trying to pretend like I do. I’m just trying to understand where you’re coming from, Vegeta. So that I can try to help you,” Bulma said looking up from the floor where she had been staring, and making direct eye contact with him.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not one of your projects, woman. You can’t pull me apart and figure me out and try to reassemble me so that I can work properly,” he said his tone softer now and looking away from her gentle blue eyes and folding his arms over his chest.</p><p> </p><p>It felt like every time she took one small baby step forward with him he pushed her backwards 100 steps. What had happened to him to make him this way? She wanted to know, but also knew that he would never tell her. She didn’t give up easily and welcomed the challenge of trying to better understand Vegeta. After all, she had already made quite a bit of progress with him; if there was anyone who could do it, it was her.</p><p> </p><p>She remembered hearing Krillin talk about Vegeta’s impassioned speech to Goku before he died on Namek. How he had been forced to do Frieza’s evil bidding for him since he was a child, constantly under the threat that if he did not do what he was told, his father would be killed. How he cried and begged for Goku to kill Frieza, to seek vengeance for their race because Frieza had in fact killed his father, and destroyed his home planet. How he wept because Frieza made him what he was, and how he never had the chance to be anyone else.</p><p> </p><p>It was no wonder why he was the way he was. Why he killed without hesitation or why he twisted his words to hurt others. He had probably never experienced kindness or comfort from anyone in his entire life. Even if he had good parents, which again she wasn’t even sure if that was the case, he wasn’t around them long enough to really remember positive memories since he was taken from his father when he was a boy. He was mad at her for caring about him, because he had never really experienced it before.</p><p> </p><p>For some reason this made her feel incredibly sad. She hadn’t thought about this too deeply before because Vegeta was very talented at pushing people away and making them want to throttle him. She didn’t question his behavior too much because she just thought he was a spoiled jerk. It was obviously a defense mechanism and it had been working his entire life. It had kept him safe, not having anyone care about him and if he didn’t care about anyone in return then it wouldn’t matter to him if they were lost. He survived because of it. She couldn’t fault him for that. His pride and his selfishness was a whole extra layer of armor on top of being deeply wounded and traumatized.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta, cut yourself some slack,” she responded softly. She reached out and touched his arm gently, feeling him immediately tense up underneath of her touch.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma decided in that very moment to be brave and try something. She had nothing to lose; Vegeta was already extremely annoyed with her and in a really bad mood anyhow.</p><p> </p><p>She took a deep breath in and wrapped her arms around his trim waist and attempted to hug him.</p><p> </p><p>“W-What are you doing?” Vegeta stuttered in shock as he tried in vain to back away from her, the close contact to the woman honestly confusing the hell out of him. Just moments ago they were yelling at each other and now she was pressing her body against his.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m trying to give you a hug, Vegeta. It’s something that people on Earth do to be comforting. Would you just relax?” Bulma sighed against him, knowing this wasn’t going to be an easy task.</p><p> </p><p>“Why are you doing this?” he grumbled, his voice angry and an anxious edge to it. No one had ever touched him before like this. He was tortured so often while under Frieza’s command that he expected it and had begun to get really good at dissociating his mind from his body to separate from the pain. But he had never been touched in a way that could be considered “nice” or “pleasing.” No one had ever dared to get this close to him before apart from during battle. Perhaps that’s what she was trying to do. Win their verbal battle by throwing him completely off guard with this strange grappling movement. Much to his annoyance, it had worked.</p><p> </p><p>“Because I felt like it,” she replied her words slightly muffed as her head was pressed against his chest. His arms were up in the air and nowhere near her body as she continued to hug him. His entire body was so tensed up that for a moment he thought that he might accidentally break another bone or tear a muscle that was still healing. If anyone had walked by and saw this spectacle in front of them they would have laughed. The prince of all Saiyans wide-eyed and trying to back away from a tiny blue haired Earth woman who had latched herself onto him.</p><p> </p><p>She pulled away after what felt like a lifetime and looked him right into his endless black eyes. He hated how she wasn’t fazed by any of this at all. It came completely natural for her to just throw her arms around him and press her body to his. What had happened to the girl on Namek trembling in fear and hiding behind the short bald one at just the sight of him? Now somehow they had gotten to the point where it was acceptable for her to do this to him. What annoyed him more than anything was the fact that it <em>didn’t</em> feel <em>terrible</em>.</p><p> </p><p>“See? Not so bad. You survived to live another day,” she teased him dryly as if reading his thoughts.</p><p> </p><p>He glared at her as she smiled back at him. She was still very close to him and he breathed in her scent, wishing he hadn’t. What was it about this woman that distracted him and got under his skin like no other? If anyone else had ever dared to do what she just did to him, they would be in bits and pieces on the floor, lifeless. But here she stood practically grinning at him and he just gawked at her in silence.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, I forgot to tell you! I’ve got bot upgrades for you. I’ve overridden the mechanism that makes them slow down as the gravity of the room increases. Their speed should be a lot more of a challenge for you since you’ll be getting stronger each day. I’ve been working on them for a while,” Bulma said realizing she never got the chance to tell him about the bot upgrades since he had injured himself the next day after their dinner together.</p><p> </p><p>Her whole face lit up as she was talking. Her genuine excitement about doing something to help him puzzled him to no end. He knew that she liked a good challenge but this was different than that. She helped him not only because she could, but also because she wanted to. It didn’t make any sense to him at all. Why would she want to help him? He made sure to be rude to her and irritate her. Didn’t she know that his plan was to defeat Kakarot after he was done destroying the androids?</p><p> </p><p>He hmphed in response and folded his arms back over his chest, consciously doing so to make sure she didn’t try anymore of this hugging business.</p><p> </p><p>“Wow it must be a good thing if you don’t even have a snarky comment for me! That was almost a thank you,” she smirked at him and he scowled back at her. Bulma turned away from him and started making her way towards the gravity room chamber door.</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll turn it on, but please be careful, Vegeta,” she stated as she paused at the door shooting him a warning look over her shoulder.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma felt like she had made some progress. After all, if Vegeta really did not want her to hug him or touch him, he could have easily untangled her from his body and pushed her away. He could have snapped her neck and killed her if he really wanted to. For some reason he didn’t and that felt like the glimmer of hope that she needed.</p><p> </p><p>Once Bulma departed from the room and he heard the sound of metal clicking into place from the gravity room door he ran his fingers through his hair and over his face. His hand was trembling, though he didn’t know why. He touched his chest where she had wrapped herself around him and it felt like he had been burned. There was muscle memory there now, the feeling of her warm smooth skin touching against his, her full chest pressed against his abdomen. He couldn’t shake this feeling closing tightly around his lungs and making his breathing difficult. It was her scent, and it felt like it may suffocate him as it was now on his own skin.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for the kudos and kind words! Please be so kind as to let me know if you like this chapter. Things are definitely going to start warming up in the next chapter, the rating will be in full effect!</p><p>xx<br/>-Mawr Blaidd Drwg</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Giving In</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warning! The rating for the story is in full effect for the last part of this chapter, you have been warned! If that is not your thing, then you can simply stop when it gets to that point in the chapter and pick up for the next chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bulma stretched her legs and arms lazily from the lounge chair that she was sprawled out on. Since her parents had left for their trip she had been working non-stop between meetings for Capsule Corp, working on bots for an upcoming expo and dealing with Vegeta’s gravity room catastrophe. It felt as though she had 3 full time jobs, Vegeta being the most challenging job of all. She had taken the day off to relax and rejuvenate especially when she realized how warm the temperature was. Bulma had plopped herself onto a lounge chair at the outdoor pool of Capsule Corp and was soaking up some sun and catching up on some reading. At some point she had even fallen asleep she was so relaxed, this was just what she needed, some time to herself.</p><p> </p><p>Her skin was starting to feel warm and she knew with her pale complexion that she needed to apply sunscreen soon or she would be feeling the wrath of the sun later on. She threw her blue hair up in a loose bun and squirted some of the lotion on her hands and began applying it down her arms and rubbing it over her cleavage humming to herself as she did so, not realizing that she was not alone.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta had been training for several hours and the heat of the day was starting to get to him. He had almost completely healed from his injuries but he was still building up his stamina after being unable to train for almost 8 days straight. He would also never admit this to the woman, but the training bots that she had recently upgraded were excellent for his training, so much so that he found his energy depleting at a faster rate especially in the grueling humidity. He had gone for a dive in the pool occasionally when the weather was too hot as a means to cool off during a training break. Today seemed like one of those days.</p><p> </p><p>As he approached the pool area he could feel the woman’s ki though he wasn’t sure why as she was usually working during this time. He frowned to himself realizing that he was far more acquainted with her schedule and her daily routine than he would have liked. To his dismay, he realized that she was not in fact working and instead was lounging in front of the very same pool that he had every intention of swimming in to cool off. His irritation grew and when he was close enough to see what she was wearing, he almost had a stroke. She was practically naked! Her full chest was barely covered by small triangles of white fabric, her abdomen was completely exposed and she appeared to be in her under garments. He blinked several times wondering if he was hallucinating from overheating and dehydration.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma was rubbing the sunscreen on her legs now, making sure that she didn’t miss any spots, she certainly didn’t want any weird burn or tan lines on her pale legs. Suddenly the sun that had been warming her entire body vanished and she was covered in shade. She lifted her oversized sunglasses off of her eyes and pushed them up to rest on the top of her head, bringing her gaze up to see Vegeta standing in front of her, blocking the sun with his signature scowl on his face. She couldn’t explain the fluttering in her stomach, or the almost excitement to see him here. It was not like him to stop his training mid-day and especially unlike him to come to the pool. She was also happy because he hadn’t greeted her with shouting about “the blasted gravity chamber” so it meant he wasn’t seeking her out for her to fix something either. Her day off could still continue! She smiled up at him, always enjoying the confused look he would get when she would greet his grumpiness with pleasantness. It appeared that he was also ready for a swim as he was not wearing any shoes or socks and was only in his training shorts with a towel draped over his shoulder.</p><p> </p><p>“Wow, Vegeta! I see you’ve finally decided to listen to me and take it easy on the training,” Bulma said rubbing the leftover sunscreen on her fingers onto her exposed abdomen.</p><p> </p><p>“And I see you’ve finally quit your day job and moved onto a different sort of profession. I think you humans refer to it as ‘<em>the oldest profession</em>,’” Vegeta stated with his arms folded over his chest in his usual stance. He felt her ki flare up immediately and he couldn’t help the giant smirk on his face. It gave him such joy to irritate her, though he wasn’t sure why as she became very annoying when she was angry.</p><p> </p><p>“You wish, you jerk! For your information I am wearing a bathing suit, it’s what women on Earth wear,” Bulma shouted indignantly her eyes narrowing at him as she sat up in the lounge chair.</p><p> </p><p>“Why do you need a suit to bathe in?” he questioned in response, his frown deepening.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma’s temper immediately turned to amusement at the genuine confusion on Vegeta’s face. She had to admit that Earth’s customs must seem strange from an outsider’s perspective. It was always fascinating to see just how much of a culture shock there was for the Saiyan prince and Bulma never tired in trying to explain these things to him.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s what people wear when they go to the beach or to the pool for swimming. It’s not for bathing it’s more of a recreational sort of thing,” she explained. “It’s less clothing so that people won’t be weighed down with clothes while they swim and also to get more of a tan or coloring to their skin complexion. It’s seen as a sign of health or vitality to have a sun kissed type of glow.”</p><p> </p><p>“What is that strange smelling lotion that you’re putting on your skin then?” Vegeta inquired, nodding his head towards the bottle of sunscreen on the small table next to Bulma’s lounge chair.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s sunscreen, or sunblock. It blocks harmful UV rays that can burn your skin,” Bulma replied.</p><p> </p><p>“Why are you trying to block the sun if the whole purpose of you wearing this ridiculous bathing garment is to get more sun exposure?” Vegeta was even more puzzled than before.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s because I have a fairer complexion. If I get too exposed to the sun, then I will turn red and my skin will hurt and peel.”</p><p> </p><p>His eyes roamed across her body once more having tried to avoid fully looking at her when he was this up close. He immediately looked away, regretting having looked in the first place.</p><p> </p><p>“How pathetic, even your skin is so weak that it cannot handle the sun,” Vegeta snorted.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma rolled her eyes at him and then slowly smirked as she decided she would have her own little fun to get back at Vegeta for his comment earlier and make him very <em>uncomfortable</em>.</p><p> </p><p>“My skin is in perfect condition because I take care of it, so whatever,” she stated nonchalantly.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma reached up behind her neck and pulled at the string that was knotted for her bikini top. The strings fell down forward over her chest, her front still covered in fabric that was pulled back by the string wrapped and tied around her back.</p><p> </p><p>“What are you doing?” Vegeta practically gasped as his eyes almost popped out of his head.</p><p> </p><p>“I need to apply some of the sunblock on my neck and shoulders and the string was in my way,” she replied innocently as she squirted more sunscreen onto her hands and reached back to apply it onto the back of her neck and tops of her shoulders. He watched her every movement unable to tear his eyes away as if he had been hypnotized. After she had finished her neck and shoulders, she grabbed the strings that were dangling in front of her breasts and pulled them back up into a knot behind her neck. This time she reached her arms behind to her back and unknotted the strings that were there, letting them fall down at her sides. The fabric of her bikini top that covered her breasts loosened even more, and her breasts almost slipped out, if she had not tied it as tightly as she did around her neck. She reached behind herself and to the best of her ability tried to apply some sunscreen on her back as well. She was almost tempted to ask Vegeta to do it, just to see his reaction but decided against it. Once she had done this, she laid down on her stomach and stretched her body so that her back and ass were exposed to the sun and her head was turned facing in the opposite direction.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta suspected that she was toying with him, and he hated her for it, especially because much to his horror, it seemed to be working. He finally tore his eyes away from her and turned his back to her, getting a smirk on his face as he devised his own means of revenge, especially since she was none the wiser and facing away from him.</p><p> </p><p>He tossed the towel resting on his shoulder to the ground and set himself into a running pace and launched himself off of the ground and into the pool at a fast speed with quite a bit of momentum. As soon as his body hit the cold water he knew, that he had definitely made quite a splash. He could hear Bulma’s muffled screams under the water and couldn’t contain the laugh that escaped him. He kicked his feet off from the bottom of the pool and pushed himself back up to the surface to witness just how much water had hit the woman.</p><p> </p><p>“BASTARD!” Bulma screeched loudly as her entire body was drenched in cold water shooting from out of the pool. The book she had been reading was soaked and her sunglasses had washed off of her head and onto the ground. Her blue hair was glued to her forehead and the sides of her face. She was covering her chest with her arms as her top had almost come off completely now.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta climbed out of the pool and laughed the whole way back to the gravity room, not only feeling cooled off but in a much better mood.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta, why do you feel the need to try and blow up the gravity chamber every other week,” Bulma sighed as she rubbed her hand across her face in an attempt to rid the stress that had overtaken it.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma had just sat down in the kitchen for something to eat when she heard a loud blast coming from the gravity chamber outside. She ran outside to make sure Vegeta was okay only to find him lying on the floor of the chamber, which thankfully still seemed to be intact.</p><p> </p><p>She immediately shut down the chamber from the outside control panel and flung the door open. He sat up glaring at her.</p><p> </p><p>“Every time my power level increases to a certain point, the gravity chamber’s mechanisms interfere with it. Whatever upgrade you installed from the last time the room was damaged, prevents the chamber from enduring the power level,” he growled in frustration. His chest was still heaving from his intense training, and she could see sweat glistening across his exposed muscular chest.</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah, I installed a sensor that way you won’t blow yourself up and inevitably blow my house up directly next to it,” Bulma replied tearing her eyes away from his body and bringing them up to his black eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“I can harness the power for Super Saiyan. I can feel it. I am unable to control it, and I’m also unable to even attempt to control it or get that power because the gravity chamber shuts down. Every single time.”</p><p> </p><p>“You can harness the power for it? That’s great! Well that’s a start!” Bulma said excitedly. “I can do a redesign of the gravity room to try to accommodate the changes, but I’ll admit it won’t be easy to do in this chamber. I will probably have to design and build a new one.”</p><p> </p><p>“A new one won’t help with attaining Super Saiyan. It will help once I have already gotten there and need to fine tune and practice. I need to go somewhere, where there is a large area of uninhabited land but with a higher gravity level than Earth,” Vegeta was standing up now and walking around the chamber.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma considered what he was saying tracing the scars on his back and arms with her eyes. He needed to go somewhere in space to train. It made sense to her of course, but she couldn’t explain why she felt her heart sink at the thought of him leaving. He turned around suddenly as if realizing the same moment as she did, what he had in mind for his training.</p><p> </p><p>“Is there a planet that you know of with a stronger gravitational pull?” Bulma asked not making direct eye contact with him. Vegeta felt a slight waver in her ki, though he wasn’t sure why.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m sure I could find something that would work. I have a few places in mind,” he answered, looking at her as she looked anywhere but at him.</p><p> </p><p>She felt silly and childish for feeling upset right now. It was Vegeta after all! What did she expect that he would stay at Capsule Corp forever? Did she even want that? She wasn’t really sure what was going on between them but had hoped to find out more and now he would be leaving. She knew that after the androids were hopefully defeated it was likely that he would be leaving Earth anyhow, so why was this bothering her? She also knew that becoming Super Saiyan was so unbelievably important to him. She had seen first hand how hard he had been working to achieve it. She would do everything she could to help him get there even if it meant having to design and build an entirely new ship for him.</p><p> </p><p>“This chamber wouldn’t be fit for travel. I can get started on a ship design but I’ll likely need my dad’s help since he developed the original model that you used when you left here the first time,” Bulma thought out loud. Her brain was already going into overdrive trying to come up with a plan for him as she walked around the ship taking notice of several things. “You’ll want a chamber within the spaceship that is able to reach a higher gravity level too so I’ll have to make a lot more adjustments. I haven’t tried to design and build something with those sorts of capabilities before.”</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t see why you would need his help. You’re more than capable of making it without him here. You’ve already upgraded the gravity chamber several times and repaired it after I damaged it,” Vegeta pointed out, finding it strange that the woman who was always so full of herself and how intelligent she was seemed to be second guessing her abilities.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma turned to him for a moment regarding him as he stared at her, not realizing what his words meant to her.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta,” she said, a smile lighting up her whole face. She approached where he was standing with his arms folded over his chest. She felt her heart swelling and filling warmth throughout her entire body. There was something special about hearing positive feedback from someone who hated just about everything and who managed to find fault or complaint wherever he looked.</p><p> </p><p>“What? I don’t feel like waiting forever for this,” he stated not understanding why she looked so happy. Maybe she was pleased that he would be leaving for a little while.</p><p> </p><p>“You think I’m smart and capable!”</p><p> </p><p>“Ugh, I just want to get off this stupid mudball so that I can better train,” he grumbled feeling his cheeks warming up in embarrassment. He did not know that his words would have had such an effect on her.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you,” she said and with throwing caution completely to the wind, she leaned over and quickly kissed his cheek. It felt like the natural thing to do after he had admitted her intelligence and capability. She hadn’t thought it over and considered that perhaps kissing Vegeta’s cheek was not something he would be okay with. She hadn’t thought at all. He had already shown how uncomfortable he was with the hug and maybe she had gone too far. The hug had been a conscious decision, but the kiss had just been a reaction. When she pulled away just as quickly as she had been there, the look on his face told her that she should have thought about it first.</p><p> </p><p>His cheeks were bright red and his eyebrows were contorted together almost as though he were in pain. His black eyes locked with hers and he pulled her back towards him by her arm so that their faces were only inches apart. For a split second she was almost scared of him, forgetting that he used to slaughter civilizations and destroy planets under Frieza’s command, and here she was kissing his cheek and being sad at the thought of him leaving. She was really starting to lose her mind.</p><p> </p><p>Every time he thought she couldn’t do anything else to surprise him, he stood corrected. When her lips connected with his face something snapped inside of him. His initial reaction was of course surprise, followed by anger. How dare she have the audacity to do such a thing! But there was also something so appealing about this audacity. The fact that he did not intimidate her, when he intimidated all others was fascinating. After watching all of those Earth shows when he was stuck in bed from his injuries he knew that this sort of face kissing thing was a sign of affection or interest. The affection part he was not keen on, but the fact that she was exhibiting signs of being <em>interested</em> in him he couldn’t deny, was <em>interesting</em>.</p><p> </p><p>It confused him the conflicting feelings he was having of wanting to blast her to another dimension and wanting to shove her against a wall and have his way with her all at once. He considered both options still having not really made a decision yet, his body moved of its own accord and grabbed her arm, pulling her body close to his.</p><p> </p><p>Her lips parted for a second trying to think of something to say to him. He didn’t give her the opportunity. Instead he grabbed her face with his other hand and pressed his lips to hers. Bulma’s eyes widened in response as she felt their lips connect. She couldn’t believe how gentle he was and how soft his lips were. He pulled back from her after a few seconds and Bulma immediately pulled him back in, reciprocating the kiss. She unhooked her arm out of his loose grip and wrapped both of her arms around his neck to deepen the kiss and pull their bodies flush against one another.</p><p> </p><p>Her phone rang suddenly, vibrating violently in her shorts pocket and startling them both. They parted instantly jumping in surprise from the sensation. She didn’t even get the chance to see his reaction because in the blink of an eye, he was already gone. She touched her fingers to her lips feeling where just seconds ago his had been, and tried to comprehend what had just occurred between them. Did she imagine it?</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta had kissed her. She kissed him back. It had been only a few seconds but it had been something incredible, tender and completely unexpected.</p><p> </p><p>And then her phone had ruined it! She wrenched the evil device from her pocket to see who had destroyed this moment between them. She looked at the screen to see it was a missed call from Yamcha, who she hadn’t heard from since their break-up.</p><p> </p><p>She felt as though Kami was playing some sort of cruel joke that the man who several weeks ago was in a jealous outrage over Vegeta, (at the time she thought he was out of his mind in thinking such a thing) was the one to interrupt their kiss.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>The tension between Bulma and Vegeta had been rising for the last week now, the inexplicable attraction that they were both too proud to admit was coming to a full head after the incident in the Gravity Room. Vegeta had disappeared for several days after the kiss and when he finally emerged he seemed angrier than ever and was spewing insults and fury at her instead of trying to kiss her again. He was demanding that she get the spaceship completed. Rather than trying to reason it out or talk to one another about it, they each attempted to ignore it and instead verbally took it out on one another. What was worse was the fact that there was no referee, no other people there to interrupt them or stop them from going too far, as her parents were still away on their vacation and they had both been burying themselves in their respective independent tasks in any other available time.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma had been tossing and turning in her bed trying to come up with a solution, her brain going from spaceship designs, to thinking about how Vegeta’s soft lips felt against hers last week. She couldn’t take it anymore and jumped out of bed and ran down to the lab, still in her nightgown and slippers and began working. The design for the ship that Vegeta had asked for completely stumped her and she was pissed at herself for feeling as though she needed her father’s help with this, especially when Vegeta had talked her up about not needing his assistance and being capable of getting it done without him. She should be able to figure it out on her own, but she just couldn’t concentrate properly. So she decided to take a break and work on a different project, a prototype bot for an upcoming expo hoping that it would spark an idea for the spaceship somehow.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta burst into her lab suddenly, a loud chasm of sound and fury. His shirt was torn at his shoulder and she could see blood trailing down his arm. His eyebrows were knitted together in such a rage that if she had been any other person, she would have fled in fear of him.</p><p> </p><p>“What is wrong with you? I’m trying to work, asshole!” She shrieked at him from behind her desk where she was trying to disassemble the bot, unclipping delicate wires with precision. She was just starting to have a breakthrough, when his royal jackass nearly knocked the door off of its hinges and stormed into her lab, almost scaring her into snapping the wires she was trying to unclip. His breathing was ragged as though he was a deranged and feral animal.</p><p> </p><p>If she had thought that she was in a bad mood, she should have multiplied that feeling by about a thousand to get even close to how Vegeta was feeling. He had not slept longer than an hour each day since the kiss. If he tried to sleep, he was haunted with nightmares of his past. While he was awake, he was plagued with the reality of Kakarot and that blasted boy from the future still being stronger than he was. It seemed he wasn’t even able to get back to the point where he could harness the power for Super Saiyan. It was wearing down at him. It didn’t help that his thoughts were constantly going towards the woman and how she worried her lip between her teeth when she was thinking deeply about something, or the fire in her eyes when she was screaming at him. The way her body looked by the pool that day and how it had felt against his in the gravity room that night, her scent filling his lungs. It tortured him and it bothered him because he allowed it to bother him in the first place.</p><p> </p><p>While he was training tonight, his frustration and rage brought a flicker of something within him and just as he thought he might finally be getting back to harnessing that power again, the gravity room completely shut down. He had punched the wall so severely that his arm was cut from the blow, hitting the cracked wall. There wasn’t a word to describe the level of frustration he was experiencing.</p><p> </p><p>“The worthless gravity chamber is broken and I guess you’re too stupid to figure out how to get it to function or be strong enough to actually benefit my training,” he bellowed at her.</p><p> </p><p>She dropped the tools she had been holding and her work gloves onto her desk. She then removed her protective eye goggles from her face and threw it down with the rest of the items. That was it. The final straw. She was already in a foul mood not being able to figure out the spaceship design and then he had the audacity to question her intelligence. She rounded her desk and stomped over to him, her white lab coat that was barely covering her short nightgown flowing behind her as she did so at such a quick speed.</p><p> </p><p>“Not everything is about you, Vegeta. I don’t sit here all day only wondering how I can accommodate you best or what I can do to <em>serve</em> you. You’re the prince of Saiyans, not Earthlings! I am busy and I don’t have time for your bullshit,” she shrieked at a decibel that Vegeta was convinced was designed specifically to harm his ears.</p><p> </p><p>“In case you have forgotten in that small human sized brain of yours, the androids are coming in less than 2 years and I’m our best bet at stopping them. So you <em>should</em> be sitting here trying to figure out how to best accommodate and serve me so that I can save this worthless planet and the stupid, weak people that inhabit it,” he sneered at her, his words scathing.</p><p> </p><p>They were circling each other in the open space of her lab in front of her desk, both of them looking very much as though they were about to engage in an actual battle rather than just a verbal one. The blood was still running down Vegeta’s torn up sleeve, and Bulma had black grease smeared across her cheek from where she had removed her work goggles. All of which seemed to resemble war paint.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t make me laugh. If you’re our best bet then I guess we’re all screwed,” she spat at him. “You’re not trying to save this planet because you care. You don’t care, you just want to be better than Goku, but you’re never going to be better than him. And the biggest reason you won’t be is because you <strong>don’t care about anyone other than yourself</strong>! Don’t you realize that? Goku is stronger because he isn’t cold hearted, he actually gives a shit about helping other people and that fuels him. Or is it too challenging for your Saiyan brain to think so deeply?”</p><p> </p><p>She knew that she had gone too far and a tiny part of her regretted it. She had seen first hand just how hard Vegeta worked, how driven he was to achieve his goals. She honestly admired that most about him, how much he tried and never gave up, no matter how difficult it may be. She could also see that it was driving him to the brink of insanity, and throwing it in his face like that may not have not been her best idea. She couldn’t help it; he had struck a nerve too by questioning her intelligence when she was already feeling insecure about not being able to figure out the spaceship design.</p><p> </p><p>He closed the distance between them somehow towering over her, even though he was barely taller than she was. She should have been scared of him, but she wasn’t and she really didn’t know why. Last week he had kissed her, though she knew that wouldn’t be happening tonight based on how angry they were with one another. She knew that he <em>wouldn’t</em> harm her, not that he <em>couldn’t</em>. She supplied him with food, gave him a home and helped him with his training, after all she was trying to design a spaceship for him; she was the closest thing that Vegeta would ever have to a friend, not that she would call whatever they had going on a friendship. She didn’t think there was even a word to describe what was going on between them.</p><p> </p><p>“I forgot that you were too busy to actually make a functioning gravity chamber, let alone be competent enough to design a ship. Your father was the one figuring all of that out. Instead of trying to do anything useful to prepare for the androids you were desperately throwing yourself at a mate who had long lost interest in you for other women. It took a paparazzi book for you to even realize it.”</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta’s voice was clear and calculated, making sure that every word that left his mouth was more terrible than the last. He knew his words were not true, but he wanted to wound her pride the way she had just wounded his and this was the only way he knew how. He had taken a calculated evaluation of how much her intelligence and beauty meant to her, especially after how pleased she was when he had said she didn’t need her father’s help. He knew the paparazzi photos of the weakling was a sore spot after watching her weep over it, and her wounded ego. He approached this argument as he would in a physical fight; he used her weak spots and exploited them.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma had never been so furious before. He had gone too far. She felt as though she might actually be able to turn into a Super Saiyan before Vegeta could with the amount of rage turning within her. She didn’t think; her body reacted immediately at his words. She raised her hand and attempted to slap Vegeta, hard, directly across the face.</p><p> </p><p>He grabbed her wrist, never allowing it to happen, of course, but he couldn’t stop his eyes from gaping at her. He was actually <em>shocked.</em> This weak little human woman just threw a punch at the prince of all Saiyans. No one so physically inferior to him had ever had the audacity to stand up to him in such a way before, especially never a female. It was the most Saiyan-like thing she had ever done and it was extremely attractive to him. His brain started to shut down and his natural physical instincts were taking over his sense and rational thought process.</p><p> </p><p>Her lips parted as she realized that she had made a mistake. No matter how mad she was she should have never done that. Maybe she had overestimated his threshold for not snapping her neck on the spot.</p><p> </p><p>Before she had the chance to utter her apology his lips pressed roughly and urgently against hers.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma could have conjured up a million scenarios of how Vegeta would have reacted to her trying to slap him, but this was not one of them.</p><p> </p><p>She melted into the kiss, her body quickly understanding what her mind apparently could not. Just seconds ago she was ready to punch him in the face because she was so angry and now just as suddenly, she was kissing him back realizing that this was what they both had really wanted to do in the first place. They had been dancing around this chemistry between them and picking fights with one another to avoid it, but here they were again. Whatever this was between them was <em>unavoidable</em>.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta dropped her wrist to use both of his hands to cup her face and deepen the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she had done in the gravity room, but this time their tongues collided and battled for dominance. It was not a gentle or tender moment between them. It was all of the tension, attraction, and frustration bottled up into one act.</p><p> </p><p>One of his hands trailed down her body and grabbed around her hip underneath of her lab coat, somehow managing to find a way to bring their bodies even closer. Her nails dug into his hair, feeling its softness. Bulma couldn’t believe this was really happening, his mouth colliding with hers, how gentle yet rough he was all at once. She had dreamt of this before, but it didn’t hold a candle to what it felt like in reality.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta removed her lab coat swiftly, tearing it from her body and discarding it across the room. He backed her into a worktable that had a few boxes and tools strewn across it. With a quick shove of his bloodied arm, everything clattered to the tiled floor creating a cacophony of sound in her quiet lab. The kiss broke for a moment, Bulma startled by the sound. They made silent eye contact for a brief second as she tried to catch her breath and regain some level of composure. The look in his eyes was intoxicating. It was the perfect combination of dangerous, yet desperate for more all at once. She was almost embarrassed by how much this kiss was affecting her body, never remembering a single moment in her life where she had wanted someone as badly as she wanted him right now.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta’s mind had completely shut down. He couldn’t process reason right now and his body seemed to be acting on its own. The clamber of tools falling to the floor seemed to have knocked them both out of their hypnosis as the kiss broke. Unlike last time, he didn’t run away. Seeing her swollen lips as she panted for air and her hair disheveled around her face from his hands, the scent of her arousal was almost too much for him to bear. He wanted her. He had wanted her for quite some time now, longer than he cared to admit, and he honestly didn’t give a damn about anything else than this moment. Before he could grab her once again, she beat him to it and pulled him by the front of his tattered shirt to connect their lips.</p><p> </p><p>It was a welcome distraction, giving in to her and not thinking about his failure to become Super Saiyan, or the androids, or Kakarot, or anything else that taunted him. He was constantly caught up in his own thoughts all the time, his overthinking and overanalyzing, a continuous torturous loop in his mind. It felt as though he had finally pressed pause for the first time. In this moment, he could only see her, taste her and feel her. Everything else faded away.</p><p> </p><p>He lifted her up with ease, gripping her round ass in doing so and feeling her warm soft skin underneath of her nightgown. She moaned into the kiss at the contact and he placed her onto the edge of the now empty worktable. Her legs parted open for him to stand between them and their bodies pressed against one another. His hands tangled into her blue hair, deepening the kiss as his tongue slid against hers battling for dominance.</p><p> </p><p>For someone who seemed to always be stalking around half naked Vegeta was wearing entirely too much clothing. Bulma clawed at his half torn shirt trying to figure out how to get it off of his body without breaking contact with him. Vegeta had his own plans in mind as his hands roamed from her hair all over her body. His warm calloused hand slipped underneath the collar of her nightgown dragging and tearing it off of her shoulder to grab at her full breast. He toyed with her hardened nipple, the kiss between them growing hungrier and more desperate as each second passed. His lips moved from her mouth and trailed across her jawline to the juncture between her neck and shoulder. She was unable to control the whimper that left her mouth as he licked and nibbled at her neck.</p><p> </p><p>She grinded her hips into his, needing friction to fulfill some of the overwhelming tension building between her thighs. Feeling how hard he was pressed against her only seemed to make matters worse. She couldn’t take it anymore. Thankfully, the feeling seemed to be mutual as Vegeta’s other hand, which had been grabbing at her back was sliding down her ass and now coming to rest on the top of her thighs. His fingers trailed painfully slow to the edge of her underwear and ripped the fabric right from her body and she gasped from the sensation.</p><p> </p><p>His fingers found her wetness and slipped between her slick folds and she cried out from the sensation. He repeated the movement that caused her to cry out and this time he slid a finger inside of her, his thumb grazed the peak of her entrance and he made a mental note that this movement in particular caused her to dig her nails through his shirt and into his back and whimper. His mouth stopped its onslaught from her neck and shoulder so that he could make eye contact with her. She was pulling at the waistband of his shorts trying to figure out how to get them off and in a swift movement his unoccupied hand pulled his hardened length from out of his shorts.</p><p> </p><p>He pressed himself at her entrance, replacing his hand from moments ago and her eyes finally met his. She stared back at him her tongue unconsciously licking at her swollen lips as she tried to stop herself from panting. The moment seemed to last a lifetime. They were past the point of stopping this, it had already gone too far but the clarification that it would be happening hung in the air nonetheless.</p><p> </p><p>“Please,” she panted her lip trembling as she tried to remember how to breathe.</p><p> </p><p>He obliged without hesitation and slid his full length inside of her; his head fell back at the sensation of her tight entrance surrounding him. A moan that he was unable to stop, escaped his lips. He had never experience such a feeling before and he felt his dwindling control slipping through his fingers like sand. She screamed out as he filled her completely, feeling a rush of pain from his size completely overwhelming her.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta’s one hand held her hip and his other gripped at the edge of the metal worktable that she was sitting upon. He paused after he felt her body tense up and her nails dug deeper into his shoulders through the fabric of his torn up shirt. He could sense from her ki that she was in pain and for a moment he wondered if he had done something wrong. This snapped his control back into check and his fingers gripped the tabletop tighter, his knuckles turned white and misshaped as his fingers bent the metal, trying to stop himself from ramming into her over and over again until she was physically ready. She brought her hands that were digging into his shoulder blades to rest looped around his neck. Their eyes locked on one another once again.</p><p> </p><p>He felt her take in a deep shaky breath and wrap her legs around his waist, taking him even deeper within her. This proved to be almost too much for him as he pulled himself out and slammed himself back into her. Their lips found each other once again. They were not so much kissing anymore, their mouths instead crushing against one another between pants and moans, teeth connecting against lips.</p><p> </p><p>His hands gripped her hip tightly and Bulma knew there would be bruises there tomorrow and for reasons that she couldn’t explain, even if she wanted to, that thought turned her on even more. Her fingers twisted into his black hair as he mercilessly pounded himself in and out of her. Her hips desperately tried to find a rhythm with his and keep up with his movements. Her whole body was trembling and she could feel sweat rolling down her back. Bulma had finally adjusted to him and with each thrust her entire body filled with heat, a pleasure burning within her like she had never felt before.</p><p> </p><p>He paused his thrusts for a moment, pushing her body backward so that she was lying back onto the worktable; the cold metal against her exposed warm shoulders caused her to gasp. She gripped at the edge of the table trying to ground herself and find some stability. Her legs loosened slightly against his waist and he thrust into her once again, this new angle causing both of them to moan out loud. With more space between their bodies, his hand fell to the spot that his thumb had touched before that caused her to whimper, curious to see if he could cause that sound to escape her lips again. This time however, between him filling her completely, his thrusts hitting something within her she didn’t know was even possible and his fingers touching her she made a sound that struck him so deeply that he almost released on the spot.</p><p> </p><p>She was screaming out unintelligible sounds not even trying to hide how incredible this felt as her round full breasts bounced up and down in rhythm with their hips. With his clever fingers pressing and circling at her clit she could feel her release building up and once his thrusts became even more erratic she knew he was close too.</p><p> </p><p>“Fuck… fuck! Don’t. Stop. Please,” Bulma panted pushing herself up against his fingers and tightening her legs against his waist.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta smirked realizing now what it took to make her actually be polite to him. He pulled himself out completely and slammed himself back into her over and over again as his fingers pressed against her. He felt her entire body convulse and tighten around him, as she was pushed over the edge. She screamed his name out loud as her hips stopped trying to move against him, her release overwhelming her. The sound of his name falling from her lips and her core tightening so violently around him caused him to release deeply within her, a deep groan escaping from him. His hand found the worktable once again twisting and snapping the metal easily between his fingers, nearly cracking the entire table in half to stop himself from breaking her in two from the sensation of it all.</p><p> </p><p>The quiet sounds of their panting and breathing filled the eerie silence of the lab that just moments ago was overwhelmed with the sounds of screaming and moaning and the metal table legs scratching against the lab floor.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma hadn’t even realized that she had sat up again. She was clinging to him to hold herself upright, her blue bangs stuck to her sweaty forehead resting against his shoulder while she weakly tried to regain her composure. He pulled himself out of her and fixed himself back into his shorts, she quietly whimpered at the loss of contact.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta backed away from her loose grip, composing himself and purposely not making eye contact with her. Bulma sat up on the worktable wide eyed and staring at him, her mind finally processing what had just happened between them. His face which had an almost calm and pleased look to it seconds before was disrupted by his eyebrows fusing together once again. His arm, which had been bleeding when he stormed into her lab earlier was covered in dried blood, his shirt more ripped and tattered than before. She looked down at herself seeing some of that blood smeared across her arm and her chest. She feebly attempted to pull her nightgown back up over her chest, realizing that at some point it had been ripped and torn. She held the fabric up against herself to keep it from falling down.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma opened her mouth to try to say something, anything. But for the first time, possibly ever, she was lost for words. She had a million thoughts running through her mind but couldn’t grasp a single one of them. What could she even possibly say?</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta…” she started not having the slightest idea where her words were taking her, her voice quiet and raspy from screaming earlier.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t,” he snapped, his voice thick like molasses and she felt herself sinking into it. He looked up at her finally, his onyx eyes an onslaught of emotions at once, none of which she would be able to figure out, no matter how hard she tried. He blinked all hints of emotions away, replacing them with his cold and collected black eyes that she had grown accustomed to. Her heart leapt up to her throat and she could feel her heart beat thudding away dully, a cold feeling dissolving into her gut.</p><p> </p><p>“This. This changes… nothing,” he growled before disappearing from the room as though he had never been there in the first place.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma brought her free hand up to her face, her trembling hand touching her sore and swollen lips that had just been pressed against his moments before as if checking to see that this had all actually happened. She braced her hand on the worktable to help herself stand up as her legs were still trembling. Her fingers met twisted and broken metal pieces where Vegeta had clawed at before to prevent himself from hurting her in the heat of the moment.</p><p> </p><p>Her fingers regarded the twisted metal, proof of what had just occurred between them.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter! It is so much fun to write these two. Thank you everyone so much for your kind words and kudos so far, it really does encourage me so much. The kiss on the cheek was a nod to the "sneak attack" kiss on the cheek Bulma gives Vegeta in Super (such a hilarious and cute moment between them!) They've both finally given in... now what?! Stay tuned to find out!</p><p>xx<br/>-Mawr Blaidd Drwg</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Aftertaste</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For the sake of clarification: the first part is from Vegeta's perspective and the second part is from Bulma's perspective about the same time frame as part 1. Hopefully that makes sense! Enjoy :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Vegeta immediately left Capsule Corp after exiting the woman’s lab and flew off into the black night sky and toward an unknown destination. An onslaught of thoughts were raging inside of his mind that he couldn’t sort out, no matter how hard he tried.</p><p> </p><p>He was humiliated that he had given in to weakness. He was horrified that he allowed it to happen, that he didn’t even attempt to stop his body from taking over. The same lack of self-control he had mocked others for, he found himself easily giving in to. He always had impeccable self-control his entire life but he couldn’t keep it together around a weak Earth woman. There was something very wrong with him.</p><p> </p><p>While he was with her, he hadn’t even thought about any of the possible consequences of their actions, he hadn’t thought at all. That was part of the bliss of the moment. Not just the physical gratification and pleasure that he had never experienced before, but also the complete and utter silence of his mind. He had of course relieved himself in the past before on his own, more out of necessity than anything, but with her, it had been completely different. He hadn’t even thought about ascending to Super Saiyan in that moment. His one purpose and goal had completely left him, and all for what?</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta landed in a ravine that was so deep, it was barely illuminated by the full moon above him and he welcomed the quiet darkness.</p><p> </p><p>He could feel the utter disappointment from his ancestors weighing down heavily on him. His father would have been appalled; his comrades would have rightfully laughed at him as he had often taunted them himself. He had never in his memory not put his own selfish needs ahead of anyone before, but he had actively stopped himself from harming the woman during the act, practically breaking the table and his fingers in the process. And why? He didn’t care about her. He didn’t care about anyone. <strong>He didn’t care</strong>. As his mind tried to convince himself of this, he could see her bright blue eyes as if mocking him. His body became so tense, so rigid with every thought hitting his mind like an onslaught of energy blasts penetrating his flesh.</p><p> </p><p>His body reacted as it would from a physical attack and a wave of energy vibrated from his body, cracking the rocks and boulders of the ravine surrounding him, several trees snapped in half and shuddered to the ground as if in fear of him. His muscles and bones cracked in tension, and his fists became knuckled and white as he felt an unspeakable power rush through him.</p><p> </p><p>This was it. It had to be it. He had never felt such power before. His anger and rage which had been a rumble of thunder within him, were now exiting his body as streaks of lightening, destroying the ground beneath him. That power he was unable to control, he was controlling now. He pushed harder once again, trying to translate the storm within into an external vibration. He needed more pressure, more external physical force to persuade this power. A loud scream escaped him as a giant blast of energy and light escaped him, and destroyed the entire ravine, turning it into a canyon at his feet.</p><p> </p><p>He collapsed to the ground, his breathing ragged and his heart hammering into his ribcage. The sun had since come up, and was shining down on him and warming his entire body. He needed that damn spaceship to be ready so that he could push this newfound power level to Super Saiyan. He was sure of it that he could do it. He just needed that extra strain of gravity pressing on him and he could reach it. This was the closest he had ever come to it. He also needed to get off this planet and away from any more distractions, and if the damn woman was around he would inevitably get <em>distracted</em>.</p><p> </p><p>Though he couldn’t deny that it was interesting how much his power level had increased since he had his way with her in her lab last night. It could just be a coincidence, but he doubted it. Perhaps the physical release and conflicting thoughts that followed was exactly what his body needed to process and control the power within. Before his rage, anger and frustration had been raw and jagged. It wasn’t tangible, he couldn’t grasp it no matter how much he tried. Now however, it was a clear path that he was able to see through and manage.</p><p> </p><p>He would go back to her home and wait for the spaceship to be finished so that he could ascend. He was certain she would want to “talk” about what had happened between them especially after the look on her face and the drop in her ki when he left her lab. He hadn’t decided what he would do if she pursued him. Initially he felt shame and disappointment in himself for allowing it to happen at all. But at this point, it had already happened, the damage had been done, so where was the real harm in engaging in it again? He was also curious if his power would become even sharper and clearer if he experienced such a release with her once more. After all, he would be in space soon anyhow and be rid of her and any sort of physical attachments and distractions. Then before he would even know it, the androids would be arriving and he would defeat them and Kakarot and leave this loathsome planet and never have to look into her annoying blue eyes ever again.</p><p> </p><p>With his mind made up, Vegeta took to the air until he found himself landing at Capsule Corp. Of course he immediately felt the woman’s ki. She was in the gravity room repairing it, which he found interesting given their fight last night and how she had better things to do. He peered inside to watch her work for a moment, almost cursing aloud as he found himself admiring her form as she was bending down. He had been back about 30 seconds and he was already assaulted with vivid memories of her screaming out his name and clawing her nails into his back. He immediately turned away from the small window and walked to the opposite side of the outside of the chamber, where he would not be seen so he could wait until she was done, and resume training. She seemed to be just about done anyway, so he might as well wait. It’s not like she could sense his ki and know that he was there.</p><p> </p><p>He folded his arms over his chest and closed his eyes trying not to think about what her body would look like completely naked in front of him, since he was deprived that from their moment in the lab. In the heat of the moment they were both still half dressed, though their clothes suffered quite a bit. He remembered his appearance suddenly as he looked down at his torn and destroyed shirt, strips of cloth hanging limply around his waist. The wound in his arm was starting to heal though it looked deeper than he had originally thought. As he was assessing his own injuries, he felt a ki that he had not felt in over 2 Earth months approaching.</p><p> </p><p>That scar-faced bastard, what did he want?</p><p> </p><p>The woman walked out of the gravity chamber and paused to look around for a moment, as if looking for him. He made sure to stay hidden and was seriously beginning to wonder if she did have the ability to sense ki.</p><p> </p><p>The weakling approached her and she appeared to be surprised to see him before the two walked into the building. Vegeta couldn’t help his body as it quietly followed them inside, keeping a distance so that neither would know he was there.</p><p> </p><p>They made stupid small talk in the kitchen. Vegeta would never understand why Earthlings wasted their time on it. Just get to the point already! He heard his name mentioned and felt the woman’s ki flare up slightly at the mention of his name before saying that he was probably training somewhere else because the gravity room had broken. Then something was shared between them and for some reason the day at the pool was brought up, though he wasn’t sure why.</p><p> </p><p>The woman didn’t tell the weakling what had happened between them but also hadn’t denied anything happened, which was interesting. They argued now and the weakling called him a monster at one point, which was certainly true and he wondered why such a thing didn’t deter the woman from him in the first place. The weakling was about to leave and Vegeta ducked away from the kitchen entrance until he heard him mention something about friendship, which was just pathetic. And then he made the mistake of looking to see what was happening.</p><p> </p><p>The weakling, was wrapping his arms around the woman and tried to kiss her face, the very same way she had done to him in the gravity room. Vegeta’s attacks were always very calculated and thought out. He was not the sort of fighter to just blindly attack without any sense of plan or thought process, always putting his own self-preservation first. But this time, before he could even realize what was happening, he tore into the room, a chair shattering behind him and had the weakling pressed up against the wall, ready to fire a blast straight through his heart.</p><p> </p><p>A different type of anger shuddered deep within him that he had never felt before, he couldn’t identify this new feeling and he certainly did not like it. He already hated this scar-faced idiot, but when he saw him put his hands on the woman something shifted in his brain that he couldn’t name or understand. He wanted to kill him. He wanted him to suffer for touching what was his. He could easily dispose of him, it would take minimal effort.</p><p> </p><p>For some reason, he didn’t. He thought of her, and how mad and upset she would be. This made him feel even angrier than before that he was actually considering <em>her feelings</em> on such a matter. It felt as though he was having an out of body experience, being so disconnected from his true actions and thoughts and instead operating based on hers. There were words between them, at one point the weakling called him out of his mind and in the moment he honestly couldn’t agree more. He didn’t recognize this person who didn’t kill, who thought about someone else’s interest before his own. He really was absolutely out of his mind.</p><p> </p><p>And then he felt her hand on his shoulder. He heard her quiet voice, a flicker of light in this horrible abyss of his thoughts, asking him to let the weakling go.</p><p> </p><p>He turned to finally look at her and for a moment she almost seemed scared of him. The thing that he had wanted more than anything this whole time of living here was to see fear in her eyes at the sight of him. Not amusement or irritation or that <em>other </em>look she gave him in the lab last night. He had wanted her to be intimidated by him like everyone else was. But this particular look, rather than make him feel pleased he felt like she had slapped him.</p><p> </p><p>He let the weakling go and felt his weak ki leave the grounds. The woman tried to speak to him but he had nothing to say and left the room purposely not looking at her and went straight into the gravity chamber that she had fixed.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>///</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Bulma stared at the door to her lab that Vegeta had walked out of for a few moments, unsure of how to proceed. She didn’t even attempt to go to sleep knowing it would be futile. She went upstairs, finding it difficult to walk, and changed into clothes that hadn’t been ripped and tinged with blood. She then decided to repair the gravity chamber. And realized now why Vegeta’s arm had been bleeding when she saw the cracked wall with a gaping hole in the middle of it, he really had been in a bad mood. If Vegeta had left for several days after their brief kiss in the gravity room, she assumed he probably wouldn’t come back until after the androids were already defeated at this rate considering the damage that was done between them now.</p><p> </p><p>She sighed to herself wondering how she got into this mess in the first place. She honestly didn’t even know what to think as her brain flooded with a hundred different feelings and thoughts on the matter. On the one hand, she couldn’t believe it had even happened. On the other, she couldn’t stop thinking about how it did happen. The worst part was that she thought she would feel better to get some of the sexual tension and frustration out of the way, which in a way was true. Her mood had improved drastically and her anger had completely subsided, but now that she knew what it was like to be<em> with</em> Vegeta, her mind could think of little else.</p><p> </p><p>While she was working on the gravity chamber every couple of minutes she would feel a soreness, or an ache in her body and then she would remember why. Then her mind could only see vivid flashbacks that made heat fill her whole body like she had taken a shot of tequila.</p><p> </p><p>She couldn’t help but wonder, now what? If this had been anyone other than Vegeta she would just talk to them and see if this was just a physical thing or if it was something more. But this was Vegeta she was talking about. Bulma almost laughed out loud at the thought of asking Vegeta about his feelings. He couldn’t stay away forever, they’d have to figure this out eventually. She wasn’t even sure of her own thoughts about everything.</p><p> </p><p>Then of course, the <em>other</em> thought occurred to her: what was she even thinking? Vegeta wasn’t even one of the “good guys” nobody was ever really sure what his true intentions were and as much as she could gather from him it seemed as though all he really wanted to do was defeat Goku, her childhood best friend. He was cold, selfish, and rude. He had killed more than she could probably even comprehend. Guilt settled uncomfortably within her. Was she delusional for putting all of that out of her mind in her lab so that she could focus on how amazing he felt? And was she a bad person for still being so attracted to him in spite of everything that she knew about him? Maybe.</p><p> </p><p>Thank Kami she had still been taking her birth control pill even though she had split from Yamcha. Contraception hadn’t even crossed her mind in the heat of the moment, as terrible as that sounded. Though the thought of bringing up condoms to Vegeta and having to explain what they were to him would have been absolutely priceless.</p><p> </p><p>Even with all of these thoughts running through her head, she couldn’t stop the tiny little piece of her that was gnawing at her gut to not give up on him, and to not write this off as nothing, or as though it never happened. To think about the bent and distorted metal table in her lab that he had almost destroyed to prevent himself from harming her. To remember the wounded animal caught in a trap, and that he cried when he died on Namek about not getting the chance to be a different person than he was because of Frieza. That tiny part of her seemed to grow with each minute.</p><p> </p><p>It reminded her of one of her first experiments as a very young child. She had 2 different seeds, one was planted in a harmful and dark environment, and the second was planted in nutrient rich soil, with plenty of sunlight. Her hypothesis had been: if a seed is planted in a dark and harmful environment, then it will not grow even when watered. The plant in the sunlight grew from the care she had given it. A beautiful flower had blossomed over time from the seed. The plant in the dark grew, but almost out of spite, to prove her hypothesis incorrect. There was no flower, it appeared like a weed, but it still grew somehow. She replanted the seed from the dark and harmful environment and placed it in the same location as the flower. It took substantially longer, but the plant seemed to recover and eventually blossomed as well.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta had already changed since she first met him, since he stayed here at Capsule Corp, no longer in a dark and harmful environment. The seed had been replanted and she had chosen to care for it, and nurture this seed of positive change. It didn’t make sense for her to forget that seed ever existed and to stop fostering its development.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma hadn’t even realized it was well into the day at this point. Had she been working on the gravity chamber that long? She had spent most of the time deep in thought and having intense flashbacks to the <em>incident </em>in her lab last night. She checked the time on her phone and saw it was already almost the late afternoon. Her lack of sleep was starting to catch up with her and she was also starting to get hungry. She exited the chamber half hoping, half dreading seeing Vegeta standing outside of it, but he wasn’t there.</p><p> </p><p>Even though he wasn’t there, she couldn’t help the feeling like someone was watching her and even glanced around the property for a moment before she approached the Capsule Corp building. She hoped it wasn’t the damn paparazzi again because sadly Vegeta wasn’t there to “<em>blast them into the next dimension</em>” and she was too tired to try and deal with that nonsense.</p><p> </p><p>“Bulma!”</p><p> </p><p>Bulma was greeted by Yamcha who was standing in the entrance of Capsule Corp.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh. Hi Yamcha,” Bulma said visibly surprised to see her ex-boyfriend.</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry to just show up, but you never answered my call from last week so I started to worry about you… especially since I know your parents are away,” Yamcha said sheepishly as he brought his hand behind his head, his other hand seemed to be clutching some sort of folded magazine.</p><p> </p><p>“Right, sorry about that. I’ve been busy and it completely slipped my mind,” Bulma replied realizing that she had been so angry about his call interrupting her and Vegeta’s kiss, that she had completely forgotten to even call him back.</p><p> </p><p>“I was just heading up to the kitchen, do you want a drink or anything?” Bulma asked.</p><p> </p><p>“Sure that sounds good,” Yamcha answered and the two made their way to the kitchen. Bulma poured them each a glass of lemonade, though at this point Bulma considered turning to hard liquor, as they sat down at the table.</p><p> </p><p>They sat awkwardly for a minute as silence filled the air. It was so strange to not have anything to talk about with Yamcha. She had so much on her mind and so much she wanted to say, but none of it she wanted to share with <em>him</em>.</p><p> </p><p>“So, how’s your training going?” Bulma finally asked.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s going good,” he said, though Bulma could tell from the way his voice sounded that not a whole lot of training was happening. After having been together for so long she knew him far too well.</p><p> </p><p>“How’s Puar doing?” Bulma wondered aloud. She was surprised to not see her shape-shifting friend who always followed Yamcha everywhere.</p><p> </p><p>“Good! I know it’s weird, but I thought it was better to come alone… how have you been doing?” Yamcha said as he looked down at his cup of lemonade and not at her.</p><p> </p><p>“I’ve been good, busy with the Capsule Corp workload since my dad is still away, lots of meetings and prototypes that I’m working on,” Bulma purposely left Vegeta out of the conversation knowing it was a sore subject between the two. “He’ll be back in less than 2 weeks though, the 2 months have flown by.”</p><p> </p><p>“Where’s Vegeta? I didn’t see the gravity room on for once,” Yamcha said, as if sensing her reluctance about the subject of the Saiyan prince.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma shrugged, because she honestly didn’t know where he was. “Probably training somewhere else because the gravity room broke. I was just finishing up repairs on it when you came by.”</p><p> </p><p>Silence overwhelmed them again as Bulma took a long sip of her lemonade trying to break up the awkwardness. Yamcha clearly had something on his mind and seemed anxious, she would have to be the one to urge him to bring it up.</p><p> </p><p>“So, what’s up Yamcha?”</p><p> </p><p>Yamcha paused for a moment as if considering his actions and then he held up the magazine that he had been holding in his hand, practically shoving it in Bulma’s face. She pulled it out of his hand so she could see it better. It was a tabloid magazine. The headline read “<em>Bulma Briefs heating up with her new ‘flame.</em>’” She couldn’t control the snort that came out of her. She had to admit that the headline was clever, at least. Below the headline were a few pictures of her and Vegeta from the day by the pool. The paparazzi were really grasping at straws now if they were hiding in nearby buildings with zoom telescope lenses to get these pictures. She knew that Vegeta would have caught them if they were anywhere nearby. She didn’t know why Yamcha felt the need to show her this. The paparazzi had tried this when Vegeta had first stayed at Capsule Corp but it didn’t get much press because they weren’t able to get any photos of Vegeta without him almost murdering someone. In the photos, Vegeta was standing with his arms crossed over his chest and Bulma was putting on sunscreen and talking. These pictures showed nothing. If they had somehow snuck into her lab last night… then that would be a whole other story.</p><p> </p><p>“So, what?” Bulma asked with a shrug. “I was tanning by the pool that day and Vegeta wanted to go swimming, well more like do a cannonball and almost drown me, but that’s beside the point.”</p><p> </p><p>Yamcha grabbed the magazine out of Bulma’s hand, slapped it onto the table and pointed to a specific photo. In this photo you could only see Vegeta’s back, and his black flame hair facing towards her. The focus had been on Bulma who was pulling up her sunglasses and smiling up at him from her lounge chair. It was when she had greeted his scowl with a big grin. It struck her for a moment how genuinely happy she looked in the picture and now she understood where Yamcha was going with this. That guilty feeling settled in her gut once again.</p><p> </p><p>“Bulma, listen. I know it’s over between us; we’ve already had that discussion. But I still care about you and I don’t want to see you get hurt by him, he’s not a good person,” Yamcha said.</p><p> </p><p>“I can take care of myself just fine, Yamcha. As you’ve already pointed out it’s over between us and my business is my own,” Bulma replied as diplomatically as possible. She wasn’t going to flat out deny that anything was going on between her and Vegeta like she had in the past, because now that would be a lie. But she also didn’t feel the need to clarify anything either. What was going on between her and Vegeta was between them and they hadn’t worked that bit out themselves either.</p><p> </p><p>“So you’re admitting it! I knew there was something!” Yamcha ran his hands through his hair, and shook his head in disbelief. “Bulma for someone so smart, you’re really not using your brain!”</p><p> </p><p>“Yamcha, don’t you have somewhere else to be? Isn’t there some other model you need to be <em>passing the time with</em>?” Bulma sighed in frustration. Why was she still having the same argument with Yamcha when they weren’t even together anymore? She didn’t have the time or the energy for it.</p><p> </p><p>“Fine. Do what you want but when he ends up being the monster that we all know he really is, don’t be mad at me when I say ‘I told you so,’” Yamcha said as he got up out of his chair and turned to leave. He paused in the doorway, waiting for Bulma to say something, but she hadn’t even turned around to watch him leave. She really was over him. It stung for him, because he did still care about her. “I know you’re mad at me, but I’m your friend and I’m just worried about you.”</p><p> </p><p>“I know,” she replied quietly as she thumbed through the magazine, curious to see what the tabloids had to say about her poolside photos. At least she looked amazing in the pictures. Yamcha approached her and she finally looked up at him.</p><p> </p><p>“Friends?” he offered. She stared at him for a moment realizing that this would be a big step for them to try to move past everything. She dropped the magazine, stood up and sighed.</p><p> </p><p>“Friends,” she replied.</p><p> </p><p>He reached his arms out and started to embrace her, wrapping his arms around her body. She hugged him back, though she had to admit that it felt weird. They just weren’t there yet, hopefully they would be one day, but it was still strange between them, especially with the topic of Vegeta hanging over them. He leaned down to kiss her cheek until suddenly he was nowhere near her. She felt a sudden movement and heard a crash. She blinked and much to her surprise, she saw Yamcha slammed up against the wall of her kitchen his feet dangling off of the floor, a chair knocked over and snapped into pieces. Vegeta stood in front of him with his hand pressed against Yamcha’s chest, pushing him up against the wall.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma couldn’t hide the complete and utter shock on her face. She hadn’t been expecting to see Vegeta back so soon. And why on Earth was he attacking Yamcha for no apparent reason?</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta!” she cried, her eyes widened. Vegeta seemed to not even acknowledge her presence or hear her whatsoever. Bulma was so flabbergasted she didn’t even have words.</p><p> </p><p>“Leave. Now,” Vegeta snarled at Yamcha behind gritted teeth.</p><p> </p><p>“See, Bulma? He’s completely out of his mind,” Yamcha winced in pain as Vegeta’s hand pressed harder against his chest.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s correct, I <em>am</em> out of my mind. So it would be in your best interest to listen to me before I blast a hole right through your chest,” Vegeta’s voice was full of rage in a way that Bulma couldn’t remember hearing before. It was as if he was possessed.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta, let him go,” she said quietly, and she touched Vegeta’s shoulder hoping that the contact of her hand would bring him back to reality.</p><p> </p><p>He snapped his neck so that he could look at her and the look in his eye ran a chill down her entire body. She had never seen that look in his eye ever before. He looked not only furious, but also <em>almost</em> hurt. But that wasn’t possible. He turned his attention back to Yamcha and removed his hand from his chest. Yamcha crashed to the floor before getting up quickly. He gave Bulma a disgusted and horrified look before storming out of the kitchen and out of the Capsule Corp building. Bulma couldn’t help but just stand there with her jaw practically hitting the floor. There was a giant crack and hole in the wall where Vegeta had slammed Yamcha into it. More damage from Vegeta that she would have to fix.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta… what… the…” Bulma practically stuttered she was so shocked.</p><p> </p><p>He didn’t say anything to her; he didn’t even make eye contact with her as he walked out of the room.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Vegeta sat up in his bed giving up on any attempt of sleep. He had successfully avoided the woman for 3 days after the incident with the weakling. He knew she would want to talk, and he didn’t know what to say. When he saw the weakling put his hands on her and try to kiss her cheek the very same way that she had done to him in the gravity chamber, he blacked out before he could even realize what was happening. He was still surprised that he hadn’t actually killed him, and even more surprised that he listened to her when she told him to let the weakling go. To see her give him the same, terrified look that others had given him his whole life didn’t sit right with him. Wasn’t that what he had wanted? For her to not bother him, and to be fearful of him, and intimidated by him. Instead, that very same look seemed to haunt him these 3 days. Why was he wasting his time even thinking about this?</p><p> </p><p>As if she had read his mind, he felt her ki approaching his closed bedroom door. Perhaps she was walking to the kitchen for something. But then she stopped, directly in front of his closed door. He silently cursed her as he felt her ki hover there for what seemed like forever. He almost opened his mouth to say something but he was interrupted.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta you can’t avoid me forever, you know,” Bulma’s voice clearly rang from the closed door of his bedroom. “We might as well get it over with and yell at each other,” she added.</p><p> </p><p>The door flung open and there stood Vegeta in only his tight boxer briefs. Bulma cursed her lack of self-restraint as her eyes immediately swept over him.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta regarded her as she stood in front of him. He could still smell his scent on her from a few days ago and the thought twisted in his gut. He didn’t understand this strange sort of grasp that this weak blue haired Earth woman seemed to have over him. But it was there. He had assumed that after he had his way with her that he could move on and focus on more important things, but it seemed to have had the opposite effect on him. He could think of little else, which was why he had kept his distance from her initially, hoping that he could detox her out of his system if he wasn’t anywhere near her. So much for that plan. What was worse was that she wasn’t even trying to attract his attention. She was wearing an oversized t-shirt and pajama shorts, but he could see the outline of her small waist and how even though the shirt was loose on her, her full breasts strained against the fabric.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not avoiding you,” he lied gruffly, his arms now folded over his muscular bare chest.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay, whatever,” she replied practically rolling her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>Silence fell between them, which was strange seeing as the two of them usually couldn’t keep their mouths closed. Bulma chewed on her lip realizing that she should have had an actual plan or course of action before she came to talk to him. She figured that he would be the one steering the conversation because he would probably say something that insulted her or pissed her off and she would just go on based off of her own reactions. But he didn’t. He just stood there, with his arms crossed over his chest, staring at her. It was unsettling.</p><p> </p><p>“Well…” she said, staring at him expectantly.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, what?” he snapped. “You’re the one who is outside of my bed chamber. What do you want?”</p><p> </p><p>She sighed deeply. She should have known that it would be like pulling teeth to get anything out of Vegeta.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay. Let’s start with: why did you attack Yamcha for no apparent reason?” she asked.</p><p> </p><p>His frown deepened and she waited patiently as she folded her arms over her chest, mirroring Vegeta’s body language.</p><p> </p><p>“He irritates me,” Vegeta mumbled.</p><p> </p><p>“He irritates me too, Vegeta but I don’t go around throwing him against walls,” Bulma said, knowing that his irritation for Yamcha wasn’t the only reason.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s because you’re too weak,” he replied simply.</p><p> </p><p>“Ugh Vegeta. You can’t go throwing people into walls for no reason!” her irritation got the best of her and she felt her voice rising.</p><p> </p><p>“I can do whatever I please!” Vegeta shouted in response.</p><p> </p><p>“What is wrong with you?” she yelled back at him.</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t know!” he replied, yelling in frustration.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma stared at him, but he refused to make eye contact with her. His eyes briefly showed the storm that his mind was currently in. She almost wanted to touch his arm, but decided against it. His brows furrowed even deeper, if that was possible.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta, just be honest with me, please,” she said trying to calm her own frustration and speak to him with the hope of understanding him better.</p><p> </p><p>“He touched you,” his voice was low and quiet and if she hadn’t been listening so carefully she would have missed it.</p><p> </p><p>A light bulb suddenly went off above Bulma’s head. <em>Of course</em>. She hadn’t thought about that at all! Yamcha had hugged her and tried to kiss her cheek. The very same things that she had done to Vegeta. She had not thought about it from his perspective because she honestly did not think he would even care what she did. Vegeta was actually jealous and probably didn’t even know why or how.</p><p> </p><p>“Yamcha and I are no longer together. He was giving me a hug like a friend would. On Earth it is normal for friends to hug one another,” she explained.</p><p> </p><p>He remained silent and his expression was unreadable, though his frown softened ever so slightly.</p><p> </p><p>“My friends have hugged me before and you didn’t attack them. What does it matter to you if Yamcha hugs me?” Bulma asked as she raised an eyebrow. She knew that he was jealous and she wanted desperately for him to admit it out loud, but she also knew his pride would never allow it.</p><p> </p><p>He shifted uncomfortably and hmphed.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay well I guess I’ll never get the full answer to that one. For future reference, you can’t just throw my friends into a wall for giving me a hug. On to the next topic: about what happened <em>between us</em>…”</p><p> </p><p>More silence.</p><p> </p><p>She felt her temper rising once again. She was getting irritated that he wasn’t more vocal on the matter. After they kissed in the gravity room, when he returned he was snarling at her and insulting her left and right. So she expected him to be yelling at her, cursing her, or telling her to get out of his sight and he hadn’t done any of those things. She almost preferred that to this horrible silence. She hadn’t considered the thought that perhaps Vegeta didn’t hate the thought of what had happened between them. The fact that he flipped out on Yamcha because he was jealous and thought that something was going on between them was still buzzing in her brain. But if he didn’t mind what had happened, then why did he disappear for 3 days? And why was he being so quiet! She needed answers.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, what are you thinking?” she finally said trying in vain to hide her exasperation.</p><p> </p><p>“For fuck’s sake, woman,” he grumbled in annoyance.</p><p> </p><p>“Do you regret that it happened?” she asked bluntly, not really sure if she actually wanted his honest response.</p><p> </p><p>He paused for a few moments, his eyebrows knitted themselves together and he sighed, “yes.”</p><p> </p><p>It shouldn’t have bothered her, but it did. She felt her stomach turn, like she had just been punched in the gut. It’s not as though her expectations had been high and that he would magically turn into a different person. Or that he would be falling to his knees and professing his undying love for her. She wouldn’t want him to be anyone other than himself. She was after all attracted to him, not a different version of him. But she couldn’t help but wish that he didn’t regret it, because she didn’t. She had never felt more physically fulfilled in her entire life, it was incredible and she would be lying if she said that she did not want it to happen again. Logic and reasoning told her that she should get over what happened between them and move on, but everything else was telling her to stand her ground and face the storm. After all, he almost killed Yamcha in a jealous rage over her, which had to have meant something. But he said it. He regretted it and that was that.</p><p> </p><p>She felt herself nodding numbly finally, unable to formulate a sentence, the words lost behind her teeth. She thought of the seed planted in the dark and harmful environment and pushed it out of her thoughts immediately. Well at least now she knew and she could move on and carry on with her life. “Well then, that’s that. I’ve got the blueprints for your ship just about done. I’ll continue working on it tomorrow,” she said sounding way stronger than she felt deep down. “It should be ready to go probably by the time my parents come back and then my father can take a look at it as well.”</p><p> </p><p>She turned away from him and started to leave the entrance to his room, ready to go back to her room and try to pretend that none of this ever actually happened. She wasn’t going to let him see her get upset. She wasn’t going to allow herself to get upset. It was just physical between them anyway. Right? She felt her subconscious scoff at her as the flash of the paparazzi photo and her huge genuine smile came across her mind.</p><p> </p><p>She put up a tough front; he would give her that. Her pride almost rivaled that of his own and he felt himself almost admire her for it. But she was unaware of how well he could sense her ki and how it shifted like waves in the ocean. It was wavering now even more than when she broke up with the weakling, though there were no tears. He knew she was hurt and he didn’t care. Caring wasn’t in his repertoire and he certainly wasn’t going to start now.</p><p> </p><p>That could have been it. He could have let her turn around and never speak of it ever again. That’s what he wanted to do, that’s what he <em>should</em> do. He wanted to be done with her and this ridiculous distraction. He would get on that ship, become Super Saiyan, defeat the androids and Kakarot and leave this blasted planet for good. It was a solid plan. But for a reason he couldn’t explain, his mouth opened and words rushed out like blood from a deep re-opened wound.</p><p> </p><p>“Nappa and Raditz would often take advantage of any time we had between missions that Frieza sent us on and seek out female <em>company.</em> I often mocked Nappa for his weakness, especially since it seemed to distract him when it came to battle. Not that it mattered anyhow, he wasn’t a strong enough warrior,” Vegeta said.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma whirled around trying to keep her face as neutral as possible, but on the inside, she had almost passed out from the shock of how much information about his past Vegeta was sharing with her. She couldn’t believe it! She hadn’t even pestered him with any questions, she hadn’t pushed the matter at all, in fact she played it off very well. And now, for some reason he was divulging into his past.</p><p> </p><p>“The dishonor of diluting our Saiyan blood would be disgraceful enough on its own, but Frieza also made it clear that any half-Saiyan offspring would be slaughtered, as would any females that became distractions.”</p><p> </p><p>Bulma had walked back so that she was closer to him and she tried to read his face in the shadow of his darkened room. His expression gave no sign of emotion, as usual, and his black eyes were deep in thought.</p><p> </p><p>“When my planet still existed, Saiyans either mated for life, or killed one another. After my planet was destroyed that obviously changed since there were no Saiyan females to mate with. Being a prince, I had a certain standard and honor to uphold. I also did not have time for distractions and I certainly would never allow any sort of weakness to take hold of me. Seeing a low class Saiyan like Kakarot became a Super Saiyan even though he was surrounded by weaknesses and distractions, it sickened me, especially the fact that he had fathered a half-breed. It’s a slap in the face to me and my royal ancestors,” he said his voice filled with contempt.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma listened eagerly, hanging on every word that came out of his mouth.</p><p> </p><p>“I regret that I gave into weakness and distraction when I mocked others for doing the same. I regret that I dishonored my bloodline,” Vegeta clarified.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma nodded, everything making sense to her now. It was almost sweet that Vegeta was clarifying that his regret didn’t have anything to do with her, but rather his honor. She couldn’t hide her shock at the fact that it appeared as though Vegeta was a virgin, considering how incredible he had been. She also couldn’t help but feel her ego swell within her at the thought that she had been the one to cause Vegeta to give in when he had a clear code that he apparently followed.</p><p> </p><p>“That… makes sense. Thank you for explaining,” she finally said truthfully. “On Earth it’s not seen as a weakness. It’s a physical need that’s seen as being fulfilled, there’s nothing wrong with that. Also women on Earth have contraceptives or ways of preventing unwanted births from happening, I have been taking one for years. But I understand now why you don’t want to do it again.”</p><p> </p><p>He stayed silent processing this new bit of information that she was able to stop unwanted pregnancies and his eyes finally locked on to hers, sending a slight shiver down her spine. She wished in this moment that he had not fucked her within an inch of her sanity a few days ago because that intense stare only brought back very vivid memories that made her knees tremble beneath her.</p><p> </p><p>“I said that I regretted that it happened in the first place,” his voice crackled between them as he stepped closer to her.</p><p> </p><p>“Not that I didn’t want to do it again.”</p><p> </p><p>Bulma felt tension coil between her legs and her heart beat stutter and stop. She had been the one to push the envelope by hugging him, and kissing his cheek, but he had been the one to kiss her in the gravity room, and again her lab. Not this time.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma practically jumped into his arms as she pressed her lips against his.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you all so so much for your comments and kudos! It really brightened my whole day &lt;3 Sorry to end on a cliffhanger, but I promise that the next chapter will make up for it ;). Please comment and let me know if you enjoyed the chapter or not. It is so much fun to write Vegeta and Bulma's thoughts on everything, while also still trying to keep them in character. Hopefully I was successful!</p><p>xx<br/>Mawr Blaidd Drwg</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Kindling</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warning! The rating for the story is in full effect for the first part of this chapter, you have been warned! If that is not your thing, then you can simply skip the beginning part.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>“I said that I regretted that it happened in the first place,” his voice crackled between them as he stepped closer to her.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Not that I didn’t want to do it again.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Bulma felt tension coil between her legs and her heart beat stutter and stop. She had been the one to push the envelope by hugging him, and kissing his cheek, but he had been the one to kiss her in the gravity room, and again her lab. Not this time.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Bulma practically jumped into his arms as she pressed her lips against his. Vegeta lifted her up off of the ground and her legs wrapped around his waist. They stumbled into the darkness of his bedroom before he had her pinned up against a nearby wall. Bulma moaned into the rough kiss as his tongue slid against hers and one of his hands slid underneath of her oversized t-shirt. Her arms entwined around his neck and her fingers found their way into his black hair as their kiss deepened.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma didn’t think she would ever be able to get over how good it felt kissing Vegeta or how even just the touch of his fingers against her skin made her self-control dissolve away as if it never existed in the first place. The fact that this time between them was more of a conscious decision and not just getting caught up in the heat of the moment made every touch and kiss that much more meaningful and because of that, she wanted this to be slower than last time. She uncurled her legs from around his waist and he pulled her away from the wall so that her feet could touch the ground again.</p><p> </p><p>Their kiss stopped and Bulma put distance between them and stepped away from him so that she could pull her shirt over her head and toss it to the ground. She then slid her pajama shorts down and stepped out of them so that she stood naked in front of him. She could barely see in the dark room, but his face was traced in light from the moonlight peeking in through his window. Somehow his black eyes seemed to darken even more at the sight of her standing naked in front of him. Neither one of them moved as Vegeta admired the sight of her pale skin and soft curves while Bulma stared confidently right back at him. It seemed almost unfair how perfect she looked standing before him and he knew that she would need to get that spaceship completed sooner than later because this was certainly going to become an issue. He understood now why his comrades so easily fell into distractions and he hated himself for falling under the very same spell once again.</p><p> </p><p>He drew in every inch of her form, taking his time and noticing every detail of her body in front of him. She looked even more beautiful than he had imagined and he felt himself growing harder as each second passed by. He took a step forward and his lips captured hers once again. Bulma moaned softly against him as the kiss became more urgent and his tongue pressed against hers. He turned them around so that he could back her into his bed, and gently placed her so that she was on her back, breaking the kiss between them. He paused, admiring her naked body once again before covering her body with his own and crawling on top of her. His hands roamed over her, paying particularly close attention to her full breasts, cupping and gripping them between his fingers. Bulma threw her head back, tangling her blue hair behind her into Vegeta’s pillow. His mouth descended onto her neck and collarbone, licking a trail the entire way across before taking one of her nipples into his mouth.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma grabbed fistfuls of blankets and twisted them between her fingers as she whimpered from the contact. His other hand slid down her abdomen and down to the juncture between her thighs, remembering how touching her there last time was what brought her to the edge. His mouth moved back up to her neck, kissing and dragging his teeth against where he could feel her pulse. Her hands released the blankets that they had been clenching and fell up to his back where her fingers traced his defined muscles and several deep scars as though she was reading a map.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta’s finger slid inside of her slick entrance and he felt her breath hitch in the back of her throat near where his lips had paused. He teased her as he slowly slid his finger in and out of her, imagining how good it would soon feel to replace his finger with his hardened length. He brought his thumb to the peak of her entrance, pressing there, while his other finger slid in and out of her.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma already felt herself becoming incoherent, as he had already figured out exactly what to do to bring her to the edge and yet he was still in his boxer briefs and she had barely the opportunity to touch him from being so distracted by what he was doing to her. She brought her hands down from his back and her hand grabbed at his cock that was straining against the fabric of his boxer briefs. Before she even knew what was happening, Vegeta grabbed her by her wrist with one of his hands and stopped his movements against her core with the other.</p><p> </p><p>He stared down at her in bewilderment and Bulma realized that he probably didn’t understand what she was trying to do. She rested her other hand on top of his that was grabbing her wrist, silently coaxing him to let her go. He hesitated but eventually obliged. Bulma sat up in the bed and with her free hands began to pull at the waistband of his underwear. He pulled back away from her so that he could pull off the garment himself. He then put some distance between them so that she could move freely. Her hand slowly grabbed at his long hard length as her fingers wrapped around his shaft and dragged down against him. The last time they were together she didn’t get the opportunity to really look at him and even now in the dark it was difficult to see clearly but she marveled at how he felt in her hands.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta released the breath that he hadn’t realized he was even holding. She was doing for him what he had done in the past to relieve himself. Her thumb circled at head of his cock as the grip of her hand tightened around him, slowly moving her hand up and down against him. Vegeta was torn between how incredible this felt and how he didn’t like how much control she had over him right now, being in such a vulnerable position with her. He decided to try to distract her by bringing his hand back to her wet entrance and teasing her with his fingers again, this time, sliding 2 fingers in at once. This seemed to work as her grip on him loosened at the sensation of him filling her with his fingers.</p><p> </p><p>He had wanted to take his time with her since it wasn’t as rushed or urgent as last time, but he found that all he could think about was pounding in and out of her and pressing her against the mattress. Bulma seemed to read his mind once again as she pushed his hand away from her and sat up on her knees in front of him. She crawled over on top of him so that her legs were straddling his hips and she pressed herself against his hardened length. He realized now her intention of climbing on top of him and the thought of being able to see her more fully while being inside of her was definitely appealing to him. He also remembered the pain she had been in the first time and how this may help alleviate that if she was able to control the depth a bit more.</p><p> </p><p>He laid his back down onto the bed and she grabbed him to position him at her entrance where she was straddling him. With her hand wrapped around the bottom of his shaft, she slid the head of his cock around her entrance, coating it with her slick arousal. He shuddered against her at the sensation, finding it difficult to control the groan coming from his mouth. She finally pushed him inside of her and slowly slid herself down nearly halfway his length. She gasped as he filled her and his hands found her hips where he gripped his fingers against her skin. She waited a moment before sliding down even further and paused again before sliding all the way down until their bodies were flush against one another.</p><p> </p><p>He could see her perfectly from this angle and his original thought of not liking that he wasn’t the one in control in this situation flew right out of his mind once she slid all the way down on top of him. They stayed like that for what felt like a lifetime as she waited to adjust to him, and he did everything in his power to stop himself from throwing her down to the bed and slamming himself into her repeatedly. He was able to muster more self-control than last time and didn’t need a metal table to bend and break to his will.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta didn’t know if he would ever get used to this feeling of being inside of her. He resigned himself to the realization that this was going to be a problem. As long as she was around him, he would want for her and for this feeling and he would have to actively control himself or just accept the circumstances and give in going forward. That was until he left to train in space at least, and then he wouldn’t have to worry about any of this anymore. Bulma brought her hips upward and slid back down onto him and all of his thoughts immediately went blank and her moan filled the quiet room.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma placed her hands flat against his chest to hold herself upright and used the leverage of her knees against the mattress to help her pick up her pace as she moved up and down his length while rocking her hips forward as she adjusted to him fully. She could barely see him in the darkness but could feel the intensity of his stare on her and it ran a shiver through her body. This didn’t feel real; it had to be a dream.</p><p> </p><p>His hands that were holding onto her hips, gripped her even tighter as she continued to move her hips, and he thrust himself deeper into her, meeting her movements. One of his hands slid to grab at her ass, gripping her tightly and holding her in place to find his own pace into her. His other hand found her core again, being able to reach her perfectly from this angle, his fingers circled around her clit and pressed against her causing a sharp cry to come out of her mouth. Although it felt amazing he needed to control the pace now, which was difficult to do in this position as his own release was becoming urgent. He grabbed one of her hands that was on his chest and brought it to where his other hand was touching her core, coaxing her to replace his hand with her own, so that he could sit upright and grab her waist and hips with both of his hands. Bulma obliged and quickly found the spot that would push her over the edge.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta paused for a moment, the sight of seeing her touching herself while he was inside of her almost too much for him to process. Her moans and whimpers became more intense as his pace quickened with each thrust. Her release came quickly, the sound she made as she clenched around him, almost caused himself to release too. As her mind was still dizzy from climax, he pulled himself out of her and pushed her back onto the bed so that he was on top of her once again. Before she could understand what was happening he lifted her legs up and brought her hips to his and slammed himself back inside of her. He kept at this fast and almost rough pace as he brought himself down onto his forearms to hold his body weight above her, and her legs wrapped around him trying to find his pace even though her whole body felt limp from her earlier release.</p><p> </p><p>Their faces were inches a part and Bulma closed the distance between them and connected their lips together. His thrusts became more erratic while moans and grunts for air interrupted their lips from staying fully connected. He slammed into her hard one more time before she felt him release as he quietly groaned. They stayed like that for a few moments; Him still inside of her, her trying to find her breath, their bodies still connected and their mouths almost still touching.</p><p> </p><p>He eventually pulled himself out of her completely and rolled onto his back beside her on the bed. A calm and almost serene silence filled the air as they lay there next to one another, no longer touching. Bulma felt like she needed to say or do something as the silence became overwhelming.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you hungry?” Bulma asked as she sat up from the bed, deciding to be the first person to speak and get up before he could try to run away again.</p><p> </p><p>Much to her surprise, he didn’t appear to be in any hurry. The moonlight was stronger in the room, having passed by a cloud and she was able to see him fully now. He was on his back with his hands behind his head. His eyes were trained up at the ceiling and came down to meet hers, catching her eying his perfectly sculpted body. He smirked at her as her cheeks flushed.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s a stupid question,” he replied, “I am always hungry.”</p><p> </p><p>“Okay then, time for a field trip to the kitchen.”</p><p> </p><p>“Field trip?” he questioned as he watched her stumble around his dark room and throw on her oversized shirt and step into her shorts. He regretted that getting food meant that she would be wearing clothing as he quite enjoyed seeing her naked, it made hearing her voice far more tolerable.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s what we call going on an adventure or to different places to learn new things,” Bulma explained forgetting momentarily that Vegeta wouldn’t know what a field trip was.</p><p> </p><p>“That doesn’t make any sense at all. How does that relate to getting food from the kitchen?”</p><p> </p><p>“Ugh it was a joke, Vegeta,” Bulma sighed as Vegeta sat up and pulled on his black boxer briefs. “Besides, you <em>are </em>about to learn something new. About the greatest food ever created on Earth.”</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta’s interest was certainly piqued upon hearing this, especially after the incredible Earth cuisines she had been sharing with him lately. He followed her to the kitchen eagerly. Once they came to the kitchen he leaned his back against the wall and folded his arms over his chest while she started rummaging throughout the kitchen.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay, prepare yourself for a magical culinary experience,” Bulma said with excitement coating her words.</p><p> </p><p>“This is ridiculous,” Vegeta sighed as he frowned.</p><p> </p><p>“If you make fun of it, then I’m not sharing,” Bulma said sticking her tongue out at him as she boiled water in the kettle.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta watched her as she went into one of the many cupboards and pulled out two plastic containers with colorful labels and lids that said “Ramen.” She peeled back the top of each lid and proceeded to fill the containers with the steaming water and then covered the containers once again putting a weight on top of them. His frown deepened as he tried to figure out what sort of food this was. It didn’t seem all that different from the rations he had to survive on when he was traveling on a mission for an extended period of time. He shuddered thinking about the “food” that tasted like burnt plastic. How could this possibly be the greatest food created on Earth? She brought both containers to the kitchen table and collected 2 pairs of chopsticks. He sat down slowly at the table eying her suspiciously. This must be some sort of joke.</p><p> </p><p>“I know what you’re thinking and no it’s not a joke,” Bulma said and for a brief moment he wondered if she really did have the ability to read minds as she seemed to be able to figure out a bit too much of what was going on in his thoughts lately.</p><p> </p><p>“This resembles the garbage rations that I had to eat under Frieza’s command,” Vegeta grumbled.</p><p> </p><p>“Have I been wrong about any of the food that I said tasted good?” Bulma pointed out. Vegeta remained silent, realizing that was true.</p><p> </p><p>She peeled off the plastic lids of each container and handed him his chopsticks before sitting down as well. He stared at her and she rolled her eyes at him then used the chopsticks to start pulling some noodles from the container. Vegeta copied her actions taking a mouthful of the noodles.</p><p> </p><p>“Well?” Bulma asked expectantly.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta made appreciative sounds before shoveling several more mouthfuls neatly into his mouth.</p><p> </p><p>“Why did you not make this sooner?” he asked in between mouthfuls.</p><p> </p><p>“This is my guilty pleasure. I have enough money to afford the greatest and most expensive food in the world. This is not something that Earth’s elite or high class would consider ‘proper’ food. But I love it. It’s been my favorite ever since I was a child,” Bulma admitted.</p><p> </p><p>“You do realize that one of these is not sufficient enough for me, right?” Vegeta said having already finished his serving.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma smiled as she got up to get more ramen containers from the cupboards.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It was surprising how well they merged together, though not much had changed in how they interacted with one another. It’s not as though they suddenly started holding hands or going on dates together, though the thought of Vegeta holding Bulma’s hand and bringing her out on a typical Earth date was amusing for her to think about. He was still Vegeta and she was still Bulma. They still argued and disagreed about most things. Vegeta was constantly trying to rush her with the spaceship and it irritated her to no end. It was his fault that she was distracted in the first place! But there was a certain level of calmness between them, even when they argued. It was more for the sport of it rather than to do any harm. The tension that sparked between them was more fluid now as they had a means of resolving it. They didn’t discuss further what was going on between them after the first evening in his room. There was an unspoken agreement and Bulma knew better than to push the subject with him. It was obvious that <em>something</em> was there. Whether it was strictly physical or not was something that plagued her thoughts when she tried to fall asleep each night.</p><p> </p><p>During the day Bulma worked on the spaceship as well as her Capsule Corp workload and that kept her more than busy. Vegeta continued to train tirelessly and kept himself locked in the gravity room scarcely making an appearance even for food. The evenings were always different. Sometimes Bulma would be in her lab until really late and he would appear requiring some sort of “assistance” for the gravity room, but they never ended up leaving the lab. There were a few times when Bulma even dared to knock on the gravity room door when he hadn’t come out for a break and it was late at night. He would tell her to go away and she wouldn’t listen and then the next thing either of them knew they were together on the gravity chamber floor. She would show up at his room, or he would show up at hers. It always started differently but ended the same. They would immediately part ways from one another and end up in the kitchen together. Bulma had introduced Vegeta to all of her favorite Earth foods at this point. Other than physically being with Vegeta this was what she looked forward to the most, their quiet conversations in the middle of the night over delicious food. It had started off as a means for Bulma to squelch the awkwardness between them after being physical together. Now it had evolved into something entirely important in its own right. She slowly started to learn more about the Saiyan prince than she suspected he had ever shared before.</p><p> </p><p>She had learned that he did not like worms, how he got several of his scars, and even a little bit about the traditions of his home planet. She tried not to bring up subjects that were sure to piss him off or any of his past trauma but she was pleased with how much progress they had made and how much he had shared with her from a few simple questions. He had even asked a few questions of his own about Bulma’s past.</p><p> </p><p>It was a strange and unpredictable routine that they had found. She knew that their time was limited because the ship would be completed soon and then he would be gone. There was an expiration date hanging over them that Bulma wanted to ignore, but knew she would be foolish if she tried to. So instead she attempted to enjoy their time together and just lost sleep over it when she was alone in her bed at night.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma stirred her coffee as she stared off deep in thought about her predicament with the Saiyan prince.</p><p> </p><p>“Bulma honey, are you listening?” Mrs. Briefs asked when she realized her daughter had gone silent.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma shook her head trying in vain to bring herself back to reality. “Sorry, mom!”</p><p> </p><p>“That’s okay, I know you’ve got a lot on your mind with Vegeta and all!” Mrs. Briefs giggled.</p><p> </p><p>Her parents had been home for several days now after returning from their 2 month cruise. Since the moment they came back, Mrs. Briefs somehow was able to tell that something was going on with her and Vegeta though she honestly had no idea how. They barely interacted with one another in front of her parents since they arrived. They were far more discrete in their clandestine evenings too. But if there was anyone who could figure it out, her mother seemed to be the perfect candidate. She was after all the one who kept insisting that Vegeta would be a great catch and frequently told both of them how great they would be together, but now she had stopped speaking hypothetically and instead insisted on what was happening between them. Bulma just chose to ignore her mom rather than even try to engage in a conversation about it.</p><p> </p><p>They sat on the porch eating dinner and Bulma hoped the giant cup of coffee in front of her would somehow give her the energy she needed to get through the rest of the evening since she had gotten no sleep last night and had been working tirelessly all day.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma’s father walked out onto the porch petting Scratch who was perched on top of his shoulder as usual. “The ship should be ready for takeoff tomorrow,” he said.</p><p> </p><p>He and Bulma had been working non-stop since he had returned to get the spaceship completed for Vegeta. “Great! Thanks for your help, dad,” she said her words slowly losing their excitement as she stared down from the balcony to the lawn where the gravity chamber was located. Much to her surprise, she saw Vegeta standing outside of it, his arms folded over his chest looking up at them. She gave him a thumbs-up and he nodded before walking inside of the gravity chamber and shutting the door behind him.</p><p> </p><p>“You’d think he would look happier knowing that the ship he requested is nearly complete,” Dr. Briefs stated.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh he’s just sad that he won’t be around Bulma for a while since he’ll be in space,” Mrs. Briefs pointed out with a giggle.</p><p> </p><p>“Kami help me,” Bulma sighed as she blushed. She got up from the table and made her way through the compound down to the gravity chamber. He hadn’t turned the gravity on yet and actually opened the door as she approached the entrance.</p><p> </p><p>“What?” he snapped at her, although the usual intensity in his words was not there.</p><p> </p><p>“The spaceship will be ready to go tomorrow,” she said.</p><p> </p><p>“Took you long enough.”</p><p> </p><p>“You know a thank you would be nice,” Bulma felt her voice rising in irritation.</p><p> </p><p>“Being in space when I asked a few weeks ago would have been nice too,” he stated and couldn’t help the smirk on his face when he felt her ki flare up.</p><p> </p><p>“Ungrateful jerk! I shouldn’t even give you the other thing that I’ve been working on,” Bulma stated as she put her hands on her hips.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta frowned. What was she talking about? He required a spaceship, nothing more. What other thing could she possibly be working on? Bulma tossed a capsule to the ground and unpacked a set of armor. She duplicated the color and the material almost perfectly to his original armor that he had worn out and nearly destroyed. She handed the folded clothes and boots to him and he found himself speechless.</p><p> </p><p>“It took me a while to figure out the correct material that stretches yet is form fitting and protective, but I think this one is good,” she said thoughtfully.</p><p> </p><p>“I didn’t ask for this,” he replied quietly as he touched the fabric of the suit in his hands.</p><p> </p><p>“I know, but you can’t be running around space looking like a complete mess so I figured this would at least help with your outfit,” Bulma joked. “I can’t say the same for the rest of you, but I can at least get your outfit under control.”</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta stared at the clothes in his arms in silence. He looked up at her making eye contact finally. Her blue eyes stared back at his and silence fell between them. He wasn’t sure what to say, he didn’t understand why she was doing this for him.</p><p> </p><p>“Is something wrong with them?” Bulma asked in confusion.</p><p> </p><p>“No. I need to resume my training,” he replied his eyebrows twitching into his frown.</p><p> </p><p>“You’ll have several months of that in space starting tomorrow,” Bulma sighed before turning away from him and storming back into Capsule Corp.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“You do realize that I have more experience flying spaceships than you probably do,” Vegeta pointed out.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma was showing him all of the controls of the newly completed spaceship as well as specific features she had designed specifically with him in mind such as the gravity simulation and training bots that could be brought outside of the spaceship. She was currently showing him how to use the navigational touch screen.</p><p> </p><p>“Is it possible for you to not be jerk for 5 minutes? Or is there some sort of quota that you need to fill each day,” Bulma snapped at him.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta smirked as he realized he would not have this sort of entertainment for a while, and would appreciate pissing her off even more than usual before leaving and probably not communicating with another living thing for several months. Being an introvert and not liking pretty much anyone would make the solitude easy to endure; it was what he preferred. Although he did not want to admit it to himself it would be strange not being around the woman. He had grown accustomed to her and her annoying habits, shrill voice, and domineering attitude. And it would be nearly impossible not to think about how her body felt pressed against his, or the way her nails dug into his shoulder blades, and the way she moaned underneath of him. But that was one of the reasons he needed to go. No more distractions. And she was apparently full of them.</p><p> </p><p>“I can sometimes go up to 10 minutes, but that’s my limit,” he replied smugly.</p><p> </p><p>“Well I guess you’re going to piss off a lot of boulders in space then,” Bulma said with amusement in her voice.</p><p> </p><p>Silence fell between them as his gloved hand touched the console. He would never admit it to the woman, but the spaceship that she had designed and made was impressive. The armor, boots and gloves that she had created for him were comfortable and fit him perfectly and the material she used had more flexibility to it as well.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay well, you should be all set then,” she said quietly.</p><p> </p><p>He turned to look at her but she was fidgeting with a touch screen near the entrance to the ship. He felt her ki crescendo until it felt as though it would burst around her. He didn’t understand what was wrong with her, but something clearly felt off. Perhaps she was sick or injured in some way. Their last time together had been quite rough, he considered with a smirk; that must have been it.</p><p> </p><p>He grunted in acknowledgment of her words, not knowing what else to say.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t get hurt. I won’t be there to help you if you blow yourself up,” she said as she finally turned to look at him. Her blue eyes were wide with a touch of anxiety flowing in them.</p><p> </p><p>“I am not a child, I can take care of myself,” he grumbled in annoyance, his eyes followed her every movement as she walked over to him and stopped once she was standing directly in front of him.</p><p> </p><p>She worried her lip between her teeth in a way that made him want to do it for her. “Good luck,” she said before she hesitated for a moment as if she considered doing something and decided against it. She turned away from him and started to walk out of the ship. She felt every word that neither one of them would say hanging in the air above them. In a moment like this, she wished that she could hug him or kiss him goodbye without it being completely strange or unnatural. But it just wasn’t them. It would be awkward and trite and it would somehow undermine this moment. He had said goodbye to her in his own Vegeta-like way last night and that was enough. But she couldn’t stop her heart from hammering in her chest and her fingertips tingling from wanting to touch him.</p><p> </p><p>In Vegeta’s conscious memory he couldn’t find many moments where someone acted generously to him. As a child, his family was true to their Saiyan heritage and their way of showing affection was by being tough on him and helping him become stronger. Once he was under Freiza’s control he was only greeted with malice and abuse. He learned quickly that being selfish, cold, and ruthless was key to survival. Since he came to Earth, if on the off chance anyone was kind to him, he felt it was due to their own mental instability (the woman’s mother), for their own gain, or that they were somehow pitying him. But not the woman. It seemed as though she did these generous things for him such as recreating his Saiyan armor, or building this impressive spaceship simply because she could and because it would please him. It did not appear that she wanted anything in return other than for him to come back safely in one piece. It still didn’t make any sense to him and he couldn’t explain this warm feeling tingling in his muscles. Why did she choose kindness towards him when everyone else chose to disregard him or rightfully dislike him?</p><p> </p><p>“Bulma.”</p><p> </p><p>Bulma froze as her name came out of his mouth, possibly for the first time. For a moment she thought that she might have even imagined it. The way her name escaped from his lips reached up behind her rib cage and clenched around her racing heart. She turned around and could tell that he didn’t know what else to say, but wanted to say something. His eyebrows knitted together in frustration and confusion, it was almost cute how he struggled to figure out the words he was looking for. She feared he might even short circuit.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re welcome,” she replied, with a small smile on her face, having a feeling that he was trying to say thank you, but never actually would. “I’ll see you when you come back,” she said trying to make it sound like a statement instead of a question. He nodded at her before turning around to face the console. She gave him one more fleeting look before walking out of the ship and onto the grounds of Capsule Corp.</p><p> </p><p>The violent sounds of the ship engine roaring to life erupted in the quiet daylight. Buma felt a lump form in her throat as she watched the ship, lift off of the ground and levitate there for a moment before shooting up in the air with so much momentum, she felt her hair fly back and then forward directly into her face.</p><p> </p><p>“You did a fine job with that ship, Bulma,” Dr. Briefs said proudly before he took a long drag of his cigarette.</p><p> </p><p>“Thanks, dad,” Bulma said with a sad smile on her face.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma felt the lump in her throat tighten as the ship became smaller and smaller until there was nothing left. He had enough fuel for well over 6 months and she didn’t know if he would be back before then or not. She knew that he would come back; she did not doubt that for a single second. He would not miss the opportunity to defeat the androids nor would he miss the chance to fight Goku as a Super Saiyan. Bulma knew he would achieve it and she also knew that it was in his best interest to be away from Earth and away from her in order to do so. She understood why he had to leave, that’s not why she was upset. She was upset because it felt as though there was legitimate progress between them, still not a word or a definition to explain exactly what was going on, but it was <em>there </em>and it was undeniable. Something was kindling and it still needed time and care to grow. She feared that with him leaving, all of the progress would leave with him and that kindling would be snuffed out. It weighed heavily on her knowing that it would be different when he returned. It was a gut feeling that she couldn’t explain, but she didn’t like how unsettled it made her feel.</p><p> </p><p>She heard sniffling and turned to see her mother with tears in her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh what are we going to do without Vegeta here with us!” Mrs. Briefs cried.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma rolled her eyes so hard she felt as though she would give herself a headache. Her mother was ridiculous. She turned away from the sky and back into the Capsule Corp building, trying in vain to pretend that there wasn’t a dull ache beating inside of her as she silently wondered the exact same thing.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Bulma laid her warm face against the ice-cold bathroom tiled floor. She had never felt so violently ill in her entire life. This stomach bug that she had was not letting up and she had grown so weak from being unable to keep any sort of food down. It felt as though her stomach had turned itself inside out, even breathing hurt. She shivered slightly as she curled her knees into her stomach, still unable to move from the floor. Thank Kami Vegeta was not here or he would probably mock her for having a weak immune system and brag about how Saiyans never became ill or some other bullshit that would certainly piss her off right now. It had been 6 weeks and 6 days since he left. Not that she was counting or anything.</p><p> </p><p>She pushed her sweaty palms against the tile to try to pull herself up from the floor. She needed to get some electrolytes into her body or she would surely pass out. Unfortunately her head was also pounding, her heartbeat vibrated loudly in her eardrums as each second ticked away. She had ignored her mother’s advice to go to the doctor and was starting to regret it. She pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and dialed the number of her doctor, wondering weakly if they could come and pick her up off of the bathroom floor in addition to giving her a check-up.</p><p> </p><p>Once Bulma was able to move off of the floor she managed to get herself ready and head to her doctors office. She gave the nurse her list of symptoms while the nurse proceeded to check her blood pressure and her vitals.</p><p> </p><p>“Is there any chance that you’re pregnant?” the nurse asked nonchalantly as she went through her chart.</p><p> </p><p>“No I am on the pill,” Bulma replied. She hadn’t gotten her period this cycle, but that was common on the birth control she was on after being on it for so many years, most of the time it was very light and it had happened several times before that she didn’t get her period.</p><p> </p><p>The nurse paused and hesitated. “Well you will need to take a test just as a protocol as well as for safety purposes in the event that you need further testing or x-rays.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah sure that’s fine,” Bulma grumbled as she felt the room starting to spin around her again and hoped that she wouldn’t throw up all over the tiled floor of the exam room.</p><p> </p><p>She took the test, having to stop and throw up again before finishing up and trying to clean herself up. She looked at her reflection while she washed her hands and splashed cold water onto her face and noticed just how terrible she looked. Her blood ran cold for a moment. What if she was actually really sick? What if she had something incurable? Like that heart disease that Goku is supposed to get in the future that didn’t have a cure, and the boy from the future had to return to the past to save him. She tried to push down the panic feeling running through her realizing it was pointless until she knew for sure what was wrong.</p><p> </p><p>She sat on the exam table and swayed her legs back and forth in anticipation as she waited for the doctor to come in and examine her. It felt like they were taking a lifetime. She checked the time in annoyance and realized it had been 25 minutes, and she was already starting to get impatient.</p><p> </p><p>There was a knock at the door before Bulma weakly told them to come in and the doctor walked into the room, reading over her file on the touch screen tablet.</p><p> </p><p>“Well Miss Briefs, we know why you have been feeling so sick,” the doctor, replied as she lifted up her reading glasses off of her face.</p><p> </p><p>“How is that possible you didn’t even run any tests yet?” Bulma said in confusion.</p><p> </p><p>“Well we did run one test actually, if you’ll remember when you first arrived,” the doctor said.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma stared at her blankly not understanding what she was talking about.</p><p> </p><p>“Miss Briefs, you’re pregnant.”</p><p> </p><p>The world fell out from underneath of Bulma’s feet. There was no way. She was taking birth control so this wasn’t possible, she had been careful. There was obviously some sort of mistake.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s not possible, I’m on the pill. The same one I’ve taken for years,” Bulma said in disbelief.</p><p> </p><p>“The pill is 99.7% effective, and that is only if you take it…” the doctor paused feeling slightly intimidated by the glare Bulma was giving her, “…effectively. Meaning at precisely the same time every day. If taken ‘typically’ then it is only 91% effective.”</p><p> </p><p>Bulma was stunned, and half convinced that this was just a nightmare and not really happening. She had an alarm on her phone that alerted her to take her pill at the same time every day. There was <strong>no</strong> way! It couldn’t be possible. Her skin paled as she had vivid flashbacks of all of the times she had been with Vegeta that made this most certainly possible <em>and</em> plausible. What if the pill was not effective against Saiyans for some reason? Vegeta was always going on and on about superior genetics for Saiyans and blah blah blah, what if their reproductive health was also stronger somehow? She hadn’t even thought of that. She had not thought about the possible repercussions, she had not thought at all. This was not supposed to be happening!</p><p> </p><p>Bulma didn’t know if she even wanted a child in the first place. She never pictured it happening with Yamcha because well, it was Yamcha. So she never really pictured it happening at all, specifically the gaining weight, horrific life changing traumatic pain followed by a screaming child. None of that ever appealed to her especially since she was focused on furthering her career. She didn’t really consider herself to be ‘motherly’ (whatever that meant) and if she was being really honest with herself, she was a bit too selfish to think about raising a child and putting their needs and life above her own. But for some reason that she couldn’t explain, now that she knew she was pregnant she felt extremely protective of this child. Maybe it was instinctual; she wasn’t sure what it was but she knew that none of that other stuff mattered. All that mattered was this life growing inside of her right now.</p><p> </p><p>But then she thought of Vegeta. The knot in her stomach tightened as she pictured the Saiyan prince’s reaction to the news of being a father.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Vegeta.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>Her heart sank to her knees and her hand fell to her abdomen, touching it gingerly.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“</em>
  <em>The dishonor of diluting our Saiyan blood would be disgraceful enough on its own… the fact that he had fathered a half-breed. It’s a slap in the face to me and my royal ancestors.”</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Each of his words hit her like a bullet. He would<strong> hate</strong> her for this, she was sure of it. She had told him that this would not happen. They even had a conversation about it, about how on Earth women can control whether or not they became pregnant. Whatever was happening between them, well whatever <em>happened</em> between them she felt it slipping through her grasp, like trying to capture smoke between her fingers. She could still feel the way his lips pressed against hers or the intense look in his black eyes. Their late night snacks and discussions all flashed before her eyes like pictures in a viewfinder clicking away. She felt her disappointment bubble inside of her. It would be over before it even had a chance to really begin.</p><p> </p><p>But she had something far more important to worry about than her feelings, or his most certain rage and bitterness, or even trying to put this thing happening between them into a category that made sense to her.</p><p> </p><p>She had this baby, and she would do everything possible to keep it safe and happy, even if it cost her own happiness in exchange. Even if she had to stand up to the prince of Saiyans and deal with the aftermath.</p><p> </p><p>Her fingers splayed across her stomach, and Bulma took a deep breath in, and slowly released it out.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I can't thank y'all enough for your kind words and kudos! Your comments put such a big smile on my face and really motivated me to try to get this chapter out. Sorry that it wasn't as quick as I had hoped, I had a lot of things going on with work. Thank you for your patience and for being so awesome! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Poor Bulma! How is Vegeta going to take the news? When will he return? Tune in for the next chapter :)</p><p>xx<br/>-Mawr Blaidd Drwg</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Consequences</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He had been gone 6 months 2 weeks and 3 days. Not that she was counting. She had no idea when he would be back. He could probably stretch the fuel supply another couple of months if he needed to. A small part of her worried about his safety. What if he was hurt? She had flashbacks to the 2 times he had almost died from training too erratically in the gravity room, and that was when he had supervision and help. Bulma took a deep breath in. She had to relax. Vegeta would be okay.</p><p> </p><p>It had felt like a lifetime since she and Vegeta had been together, or since she had last seen him. The insane physical pleasure being just a fleeting memory now made her unable to find any other positives to being pregnant other than the conception itself. She wasn’t worried about him anymore. Now she hated him again. She hated him with every fiber of her being. The worst part was that he wasn’t even here for her to take it out on him. This was his fault, he had done this to her. She hated sleeping on her side, but was left with no choice but to do so with the pregnancy pillow that she had. Her stomach had grown so much that she feared it would never be small again. She had been put on bed rest from work for about a month now, because of how large the baby was in comparison to her small frame. She hated bed rest. She missed working in her lab and she even missed attending meetings, something she never thought she would miss.</p><p> </p><p>At this point the doctors couldn’t even determine how far along her pregnancy was because of the rate that the baby was growing. It was likely that she was a little over 6 months along if she took into consideration the short amount of time that her and Vegeta had been together, but the baby’s size was comparable to someone beyond their 8<sup>th</sup> month of pregnancy. She didn’t know if gestation for Saiyans was longer than 9 months, and the thought of being pregnant any longer than necessary made her want to scream. A part of her desperately wanted to call Chi-Chi to see what her pregnancy was like with Gohan but she also wasn’t quite yet ready to share with everyone that she was pregnant with Vegeta’s half-Saiyan child. Especially when the father didn’t even know yet.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma sat up trying to stretch without hurting herself. She was starting to get hungry again, even though she had breakfast only 2 hours ago. She felt that she could no longer poke fun at the eating habits of Goku or Vegeta now that she had the same appetite. She felt bad bothering her mom again for food and didn’t think getting up to the kitchen was that big of a deal. Plus her mom doted on her so much that she just ended up getting so annoyed that her blood pressure went up, which was also not good for the baby. Her parents had taken the news very well, both of them were absolutely thrilled to become grandparents and her mother was under the delusion that Vegeta would also be excited when he returned. As annoying as her mother could be, she had to admit that she was grateful for all of her help. She made her way to the kitchen and started to make several peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in addition to a jar of pickles and a bag of barbeque potato chips.</p><p> </p><p>“Bulma honey, why didn’t you tell me you were hungry!” Mrs. Briefs’ voice startled her as she was in the middle of slathering peanut butter onto bread slices. Bulma took a deep breath in, trying not to get annoyed. Her mom was just trying to be helpful.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s fine mom, I’m not going to get hurt trying to make myself a snack. I can’t stay in that bed any longer or I’m going to lose my mind,” Bulma said without turning around as she spread jelly on top of the peanut butter.</p><p> </p><p>“Well I could have brought something up, I was just going to come get you. You have a visitor!”</p><p> </p><p>“What do you mean I have a… “ Bulma stopped mid-sentence when she whirled around to see a wide-eyed Yamcha standing next to her mother in the kitchen.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh,” was the only thing Bulma managed to say as she made eye contact with her ex-boyfriend who had absolutely no idea that she was pregnant.</p><p> </p><p>“Well I’ll leave you two to talk, I’m sure you’ve got a lot to catch up on! I’ll go pick up some groceries from the store or we’ll start running out of food again with the way your appetite has been!” Mrs. Briefs giggled before walking out of the kitchen. Bulma dropped the knife that had peanut butter on it and felt her cheeks burning up in embarrassment. She covered each sandwich with the top piece of bread and stacked them onto a plate.</p><p> </p><p>“I saw a picture in the tabloids but I figured it was photoshopped or something,” Yamcha said in disbelief.</p><p> </p><p>“Well it’s not the first time the paparazzi tried to say I was pregnant,” Bulma sighed as she grabbed her plate of sandwiches and brought them to the table with the rest of her snacks.</p><p> </p><p>Yamcha sat down across from her, staring in shock at her very pregnant stomach and then brought his eyes back up to meet hers. Bulma bit into one of the sandwiches, not letting the fact that Yamcha was here deter her from her much-needed snack.</p><p> </p><p>“If you’re planning on lecturing me, please don’t waste your breath,” Bulma said in between mouthfuls.</p><p> </p><p>“Bulma, this is insane. Even if you have to admit that,” Yamcha replied.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes I’m well aware that this is insane, Yamcha. I’m living with it every single day,” Bulma snapped at him as she wiped her mouth with a napkin.</p><p> </p><p>“How did he take the news?” Yamcha asked with equal parts curiosity and dismay</p><p> </p><p>“He doesn’t know,” Bulma answered.</p><p> </p><p>“What? What do you mean he doesn’t know! I mean look at you…”</p><p> </p><p>“Excuse you!” Bulma shouted as she dropped the bag of chips back onto the kitchen table. “In case you’ve forgotten, buddy I am very much pregnant and full of hormones and I have a half-Saiyan baby growing inside of me so I might be able to get the ability to shoot blasts at you if you keep being so rude!”</p><p> </p><p>“I-I mean you look great! You really do! But your stomach is very much pregnant that’s all!” Yamcha held up his hands defensively. “He’d have to be really stupid to not realize.”</p><p> </p><p>“He left to train in space before I even knew,” Bulma said quietly. “I had been working on a ship for him so that he could train without any distractions… and then a few weeks after he left I found out.”</p><p> </p><p>Yamcha was completely silent, his mouth forming a straight line across his face. He couldn’t believe this was happening, it almost felt like a nightmare.</p><p> </p><p>“I didn’t think you even wanted to have kids,” Yamcha finally said after a few moments.</p><p> </p><p>“I obviously didn’t plan for this to happen, Yamcha,” Bulma said exasperated. “And I can tell you that becoming a father is not high on Vegeta’s priority list either.”</p><p> </p><p>“How do you think he’s going to take the news?” Yamcha asked warily becoming concerned about her safety. He couldn’t believe that Bulma allowed this to happen. He still hadn’t accepted the fact that she and Vegeta had entered into some sort of a physical relationship together, especially after he tried to kill him the last time he was here. But now, Bulma was carrying his child. The child of a guy who killed without hesitation, wanted to defeat Goku and who was generally awful towards everyone. He knew better than to bring this up to her, seeing as it was already way too late. But he couldn’t help the cold feeling turning in the pit of his stomach.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma stayed silent as she examined her fingers, and then touched her stomach as she felt the baby kick.</p><p> </p><p>“I guess I’ll have to wait and see.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta felt as though his lungs were being crushed and that bricks were weighing down his bones. Bulma had upgraded the gravitational capabilities for this new space ship and he had been taking advantage of its upgrades. But training at 450 times Earth’s Gravity was taking a toll on his body. It had been months since he left Earth and he still hadn’t ascended yet, which only added to his rage. It was always out of his grasp, just barely. Like a toy constantly being dangled in front of a child without any hope of them every reaching it. With every inhale he saw Kakarot’s blonde hair and blue eyes laughing at him. And with every exhale, the boy from the future sharpening his sword. Their mockery was probably the only thing keeping him alive at this point. He pictured disappointment in his father’s eyes and with labored breathing, he crawled his way to the control panel. Even raising his hand up to try to touch the touch screen felt like he was fighting for his life.</p><p> </p><p>His trembling fingers managed to turn off the gravity and his entire body collapsed to the ground once the gravity was lifted. Vegeta took a deep gasping breath finally feeling as though he could breathe fully again with the weight no longer crushing his lungs. He lay there for a while, not entirely sure how much time had passed before he was able to sit up and stand from the ground. He had been training at 450 times normal gravity for nearly 24 hours straight. He decided to take a break from being inside of the ship and walked out onto the uninhabited planet he had been staying on. He had planet hopped over the months, getting tired of the scenery from one place and going to a new one. He recently came across this empty planet when he saw there were intense electrical storms and it seemed like an appropriate place for his mood. His boot touched the gravel of the ground outside and he took a deep breath in while he wiped the sweat pouring down his forehead. The atmosphere here was livable and he was able to breathe without difficulty, but it wasn’t the same as Earth. He grimaced realizing how accustomed he had come to living on Earth, no wonder he couldn’t become a Super Saiyan being surrounded by weakness all the time he had to get it out of his system.</p><p> </p><p>The electricity sizzled around him creating a cacophony of sound. It seemed that the storm had only intensified since his arrival yesterday. The dark sky surrounding the planet resembled rippled turquoise water and the lightning bolts of electricity illuminated them so it looked as though the air was glowing. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in, trying to calm the turmoil sinking into his body.</p><p> </p><p>What if he couldn’t do it? What if he was not capable of becoming a Super Saiyan? At this point, he had pushed his body past limits he didn’t even think were possible, and yet here he stood, alive. But he still had not attained it. His muscles started to tremble, still so sore from his training and started to tense up once again as his anger flared up within him. His anger at this point was a flame that constantly burned and each day that he didn’t ascend the flame was stoked and provoked further.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“You don’t care, you just want to be better than Goku, </em>
  <em>but you’re never going to be better than him. And the biggest reason you won’t be is because you <strong>don’t care about anyone other than yourself</strong>! Don’t you realize that? Goku is stronger because he isn’t cold hearted, he actually gives a shit about helping other people and that fuels him…”</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Her words haunted him more often than he cared to admit. In the moment when she had spoken those words, he knew she was just really angry with him and would say anything to piss him off. But what if she was right? Kakarot was revered by all of his stupid friends and family. Even his enemies respected him. He was considered a hero, and often cared too much about others to the point of complete stupidity. After all, Kakarot was the one who had spared him in the first place, something that would taunt him for the rest of his life. What if Super Saiyan was only attainable with good intention or a pure heart? He thought of the boy from the future who claimed to be Saiyan as well. His intentions also seemed good considering he had traveled from the future to give the past a better chance. Thankfully he didn’t seem as stupid as Kakarot.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta’s intentions certainly weren’t good. He wanted to kill the androids and defeat Kakarot with the newfound power. He wanted to see everyone’s dumbfounded faces when they realized that he was the strongest and mightiest Saiyan once and for all! So what if his intentions weren’t pure. It was his destiny! He was the prince of the Saiyan race therefore he deserved this; it was his royal, natural-born right.</p><p> </p><p>He opened his eyes realizing that the electrical storm had become infinitely worse in just the few moments that he had been outside of the ship. In addition to the lightning bolts striking the ground around him, meteors had started falling from the sky like rain and shattering all around him. Perhaps this planet had not been a good place for training after all. The meteors seemed to grow in size and Vegeta realized that they could seriously damage the ship, which was his only way off of this dreadful place. He mustered the little bit of strength that he had left and shot blasts at the meteors dissolving them before they could harm the ship. It took every bit of energy he had left to fly and destroy the meteors falling around him. It seemed as though it was all under control deflecting the last bit of rock from the ship.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta felt himself panting, trying to gasp for air, the exhaustion of destroying all of the meteors catching up to him. He levitated in the air about to sink back down to the ground when a shadow fell over him. He turned around to look up at the sky and was greeted with a meteor that was about half the size of the planet he was currently on. His eyes widened realizing he didn’t know if he had the strength to destroy this. Something he could have so easily done if he had not been training under the stress he had been all day.</p><p> </p><p>Saiyans did not typically live long lives. They almost always died in battle, so he assumed he would eventually meet the same fate. But <strong>not</strong> today. He was most certainly not going to die at the hands of a giant rock before even getting the satisfaction of becoming Super Saiyan. That would be absurd. He somehow found enough energy to shoot a blast at the enormous meteor, hoping to blast it into smaller manageable pieces. The blast was not nearly strong enough and instead the rock seemed to reflect the energy and sent him crashing to the rocky ground. The impact of the ground felt like glass shattering to the floor. His armor and gloves were torn from the sharp boulders and blood was draining from his already exhausted body.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta was not a hopeful person, by any means. He had learned a long time ago that hope was dangerous and futile. But he was a very motivated person. His motivation to become Super Saiyan and defeat Kakarot was what got him out of bed each day. But his motivation was gone, and hope, something he never was able to actually carry was gone as well. He could barely lift his head upright let alone destroy this meteor that was headed directly for him and the ship. The lone prince of a nearly extinct race about to be taken out by a glorified boulder. What a disappointment he was. He could hear Frieza’s heartless laughter, mocking him once more. And then something snapped inside of him. His spirit a mere bone cracked into 2 pieces beyond repair.</p><p> </p><p>“No! No more! That’s it!” he felt himself shouting out loud to himself and to everyone all at once. He slammed his fists onto the rocks in front of him, feeling a few of his fingers breaking.</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t care!”</p><p> </p><p>And he didn’t. He truly did not care about being a Super Saiyan or Kakarot or anything. He didn’t even care if he survived. Apparently this is what giving up felt like. It was something he had never experienced before, and he had to admit it was a very liberating feeling, to let go of so much that had burdened him. He stared at the blood pooling in his fists and rolling down the white gloves that Bulma had replicated for him. And then of course his thoughts went to her, as they usually did. He pictured her so clearly it was almost as though she was standing in front of him, her blue eyes wide and full of concern. He blinked a few times to convince himself that she wasn’t actually there.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“Why is it so difficult for you to understand that somebody actually cares if something happens to you?”</em>
</p><p> </p><p>He slammed his eyes shut trying to get rid of this image of her. He did not want the last thing he would ever see to be the look of disappointment and concern on her face. He couldn’t bear it. She would never even know what happened to him. He shook his head until the image in front of him was instead her on the last day he saw her, giving him a small determined smile as she turned to leave him.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“I’ll see you when you come back.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>His eyes shot open and it felt like an electrical jolt shot straight into his heart. For a brief moment he wondered if he had been electrocuted from one of the lightning bolts. It was like a defibrillator shocking his system back into place, but the bolt of energy didn’t dissipate. It filled him completely as though he had bathed in a boiling hot light. He screamed so loudly he couldn’t even hear it as though he no longer had control of his own body and his scream tore right through him, lighting up his veins in the process.</p><p> </p><p>The lightning exiting his body rivaled that of the electrical storm in the sky above him and the bright light around him encompassed the gigantic meteor until it dissolved into absolutely nothing. The energy that his blast gave off appeared to cause the electrical storm to stop as everything around him went completely silent. The ship was in tact and so was he somehow.</p><p> </p><p>He had done it. He could see the golden glow around him and he knew without a doubt that if he were to look in his reflection he would see his blond haired and blue-eyed twin looking back at him. The surge of energy and power flowing through him was intoxicating. His injuries and fatigue were gone and he felt as though he could conquer the universe. He fell to his knees and started to laugh. He had finally achieved his goal, his destiny. And he had done so by giving up and not caring about reaching his goal. He laughed so hard that it almost hurt.</p><p> </p><p>And the strangest part of all, other than his laughter, was that he turned around as if to tell Bulma what had happened, that he had finally done it. She would of course want to know right away. He could prove to her that he didn’t need to be a kind and caring hero to achieve his goal. He turned only to forget that she wasn’t there and that he was completely alone in the solitude of space. His laughter became a distant echo as the glow of power around him vibrated in his eardrums.</p><p>
  
</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The ship landed with ease, much better than the first time he had landed on Capsule Corp. It was late at night meaning everyone would be asleep, which is what Vegeta preferred in the first place. As he entered the Capsule Corp building, he could sense Bulma’s ki in her room, just as he expected considering it was so late in the evening. For a flicker of a second, he thought about going to her room. It had been a long time since he had seen her and the vivid memory of her body pressed against his, or the sound she made when she climaxed haunted him far more than he wanted to admit. But he had already gotten past that. There was no sense in engaging in that sort of distraction again. He had made up his mind; he would go to his room and not interact with her unless it was necessary to do so going forward. He would not give into temptation as he had so foolishly done in the past. He had far better control now. She was out of his system; it was over and done with.</p><p> </p><p>That was his plan. And then as he got closer to his room he sensed another ki with her. In <strong>her </strong>room. <em>In the middle of the night</em>. It wasn’t the weakling but it was certainly someone else. The only reason he could see someone being in her room right now was the very reason he was trying to convince himself to just go to his own room and ignore her. His blood ran cold. He didn’t know who it was, but they were about to meet their end tonight.</p><p> </p><p>He stormed down the long hallway and flung her door open ready to kill whoever it was but instead all he found was the woman in her bed under her covers. The sound of the door flying off of its hinges and crashing to the floor woke her and she sat up slightly in her bed and flicked on her light, blinking away sleep and confusion.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta!” Bulma gasped in complete surprise seeing the Saiyan prince standing in her bedroom. She quickly grabbed her blankets and pillows and shoved them in front of her trying to hide her stomach from his sight, realizing she was nowhere near ready or awake enough to have <em>that</em> conversation with him. A part of her had wished he would come back once the baby was already born, which would be any day now as long as she didn’t have to carry the child longer than an Earth gestation which she was still unsure of.</p><p> </p><p>His armor was destroyed in most places, there were cracks and holes and dried blood on him. His gloves had turned a dark brown rather than the white that she had created. He looked like he had been through actual hell. She considered bringing up his training to try to avoid the conversation about her pregnancy and also because she wanted to know if he had reached his goal. His eyes narrowed at her and she wondered what he could possibly be pissed at her for since they hadn’t seen one another in months, and he didn’t know about the baby…yet.</p><p> </p><p>“Where is he?” Vegeta growled as he stalked around the room.</p><p> </p><p>“Nice to see you too, Vegeta. Where is who?” Bulma grumbled in confusion.</p><p> </p><p>“I can sense another ki in your bedroom,” Vegeta snapped furiously.</p><p> </p><p>“What are you talking about, I don’t have anyone else here with me,” she said frowning, wondering if Vegeta had completely lost his mind while training in solitude for so long. Maybe he was concussed. Though for a brief moment she realized that he was jealous at the thought of her having someone here that wasn’t him even though so much time had passed between them and it almost put a smile on her face. That was until she remembered the conundrum she was faced with.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re lying. I can sense something!” he snarled.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma paled realizing what he was sensing. It seemed as though she would be having<em> that</em> conversation with him now, prepared or not.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re right, there is someone else other than me here,” Bulma said quietly.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta’s body tensed up even more than before at her apparent admittance of guilt. He was furious, though he knew he had no right to be. After all, he had just agreed to himself that he was done with the physical connection they had, so it shouldn’t matter to him if she had someone else in her bedchamber. The androids would be here in about a year and then he would be gone. But he didn’t want anyone else touching her. The thought alone made him want to wipe out entire civilizations again, starting with this mud ball of a planet. It didn’t seem fair or right, but he didn’t care. He wanted to kill whoever it was slowly and painfully.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma pushed aside the pillows and blankets and slowly stood up from her bed, placing her hand on her lower back to help the ache that was there. Her swollen stomach stuck out guiltily in her light blue nightgown.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta did a double take gaping at her large stomach. The rest of her body still remained small and toned, her face exactly the way he remembered though her blue hair was shorter now, but her stomach was so large it appeared as though she had swallowed one of those large green Earth fruits that was pink inside and had black seeds in it. She remained completely silent and her ki flared up in response to the look on his face. As he felt her ki burst, the other ki that he had felt matched hers and flared up even more than her own. The second ki was not another man in her bedroom in the middle of the night, but rather a part of her. She was with child. This piece of information hit him like a blast to the chest and his entire body went rigid.</p><p> </p><p>His silence said nothing and everything at the same time.</p><p> </p><p>He turned away from her and walked out of her bedroom. Bulma stood there in disbelief. She knew he would be furious, but she had not expected silence. She expected the exact opposite of that. She touched her stomach feeling the baby kick against her, probably sensing her feelings. A few minutes passed and the ache in her chest suddenly filled with fire. How dare he! He had nothing to say? Absolutely nothing? She was the one who had to carry this child and eventually give birth to it. And he couldn’t even take the time to speak to her about it? She wasn’t sure if it was the hormones or just the usual way that Vegeta could infuriate her like no other, but any sadness evaporated and she was livid. She waddled down the hallway, though in her mind she felt like she was storming powerfully, bed rest be damned. She approached his bedroom door and raised her hand to knock on it, but then remembered how her bedroom door lay in pieces in her bedroom right now after he blasted into her room. She flung the door open and stood in the doorway slightly embarrassed by how winded she was from walking from her room to his.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta stood in the middle of the room still wearing his tattered armor and his back was turned toward her. He probably knew she was coming but he didn’t know she was coming at him with months of resentment and turmoil on her mind. He didn’t bother to turn around or even look at her, and her anger intensified.</p><p> </p><p>“So, Mr. I-have-an-opinion-and-a-snarky-remark-about-everything, has nothing to say?” she snapped at him as she placed one hand on her hip and the other on her lower back.</p><p> </p><p>“There’s nothing to be said,” he stated coldly.</p><p> </p><p>“How the hell is there nothing to be said, Vegeta?” her voice started to rise and she tried to calm herself down a little bit for the sake of the baby.</p><p> </p><p>“It doesn’t matter to me what you do. I don’t care if you are throwing yourself at the weakling again,” he said.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma stood there for a moment puzzled. “What are you talking about?” she asked in confusion.</p><p> </p><p>“You are carrying his child,” Vegeta said turning around and gesturing at her as if the answer was so obvious.</p><p> </p><p>“What?” Bulma shrieked so loudly that she realized she would probably wake up her parents. Vegeta didn’t even think the baby was his. She felt her blood boiling in her veins. Did he think so little of her that he believed she would just leap into Yamcha’s arms the moment he left?</p><p> </p><p>“Are you out of your fucking mind! It’s not Yamcha’s baby, you idiot!”</p><p> </p><p>She was trying again to calm down but she also felt that the baby would understand why she was so mad right now and would agree that she should be pissed off. “In case you are concussed or had a traumatic brain injury while you were in space, let me catch you up: I broke up with him a long time ago. And then I was only spending time with one other person after that, who flew off into space months ago to train. Any guesses who that was, Sherlock?”</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta frowned for a moment not understanding what a Sherlock was and then his eyes grew wider than before after he processed her words. He shook his head.</p><p> </p><p>“No,” he stated simply. “No. It’s not possible. You said it would not happen.”</p><p> </p><p>“I thought the same thing, Vegeta,” her rage suddenly turned quiet. ”I thought the contraception I was on was effective, but it was not. I have used it for years and never became pregnant.”</p><p> </p><p>If Bulma had been only a witness instead of the very person at the epicenter of this situation, she would have laughed and tried to get a picture of the look on Vegeta’s face. His jaw was slack, his mouth open and his eyes were wide in shock. He blinked the expression away replacing it with his signature frown and cold eyes, a look she hadn’t seen from him in quite a while. The look he gave to people he despised. The look he gave to strangers. The look he didn’t give to her anymore, but did again just now. Her heart deflated and sank deep into the pit of her stomach. She had known this would be awful. She had recurring nightmares about it. But nothing could prepare her for the look on his face.</p><p> </p><p>“You tricked me… you lied to me. You said this would not happen, that you could control this,” his voice was like shards of ice as he approached her.</p><p> </p><p>“I did not think this would happen. I was just as shocked as you are now. It might have something to do with the fact that you are a Saiyan, I’m not sure,” she wanted her voice to sound strong, but it wavered.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>’You’re not sure,’</em> for someone who claims to be so intelligent you can’t seem to figure this out,” he snapped and she thought of the feral animal stuck in a trap again.</p><p> </p><p>“I understand why you are angry, but I did not do this on purpose, Vegeta.”</p><p> </p><p>“<strong>Angry</strong>?” He was closer to her now, and her hands came to rest on top of her swollen stomach protectively. She didn’t think he would try to harm her or the baby but she had also never seen him so enraged before. And not his usual ‘”<em>I’m going to blast you to the next dimension</em>” sort of anger, but rather a quiet slow burning anger. She reminded herself that Vegeta had killed many over far less. He had every right to be mad, but she also couldn’t help but get angry and upset herself. It’s not like she wanted this to happen either.</p><p> </p><p>“A weak, useless Earth woman that I have made no commitment to is carrying my half-breed Saiyan heir. <em>Angry</em> doesn’t even begin to cover it,” he snarled at her.</p><p> </p><p>And just like that her genuine anxiety and fear of the situation disappeared and was replaced by hurt and complete outrage over his words.</p><p> </p><p>“How dare you! You think that I wanted this? Do you think that I want to have to waddle around, get violently ill and change my entire life? I have had to carry this child and eventually give birth to it without even fully knowing what that will be like because it’s not completely human. They don’t have a baby book ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Half-Saiyan Child’ you know. I don’t even know how long I’m supposed to be pregnant for! I’m terrified, I’m exhausted and I wish I could punch you in the face right now for calling me useless, you fucking asshole,” Bulma’s voice was hoarse from shouting and she felt tears welling in her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta had not expected her to cry and he hated the sound of it, it made her appear so weak when he knew her to be otherwise. He felt the same annoyance he felt the night he saw her crying in the kitchen over the weakling.</p><p> </p><p>“And I’m so full of hormones right now that all I do is cry and want to eat everything in sight. I know I messed up about the birth control but I really didn’t think this would happen, Vegeta. I wasn’t trying to trick you. I didn’t want this to happen either,” her lip trembled as she tried to will away the tears but they fell down her cheeks in spite of her.</p><p> </p><p>It made her even angrier that her immediate reaction was to cry. She wanted to appear as strong as possible to Vegeta and he perceived crying as a weakness. She couldn’t control her feelings, not that she was an expert at that in the first place, but the hormones made it nearly impossible now. She took a deep breath in and he just stood there staring at her. The intense rage in his face had faded and he looked almost frightened of her instead.</p><p> </p><p>“Listen, this is happening. Obviously we did not plan or expect this, but I am having this baby whether you like it or not. And if you try to stop me or harm this baby, then I’ll get Goku to kick your ass.”</p><p> </p><p>It felt as if she had struck him. Her words shouldn’t matter to him, but they did. Her thinking that he would go so far as to harm her and the child twisted in his gut. He had easily killed so many innocent lives, so it made sense for her to question his actions. He was as the weakling had said “<em>a monster</em>.” And then she had to drag Kakarot into this of course too. It shouldn’t bother him, an accusation like this, but it did. He looked away from her, studying the wall instead of her intense blue eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Do as you wish, I will not stop you,” he finally said, still not looking at her.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma realized her words had an effect on him, though she didn’t think they would. She didn’t really believe he would hurt her or their child but she also didn’t know how he would react in this situation and had spent her entire pregnancy imagining the worst-case scenario. Bulma wanted to say more but couldn’t find the words. She wanted to ask Vegeta if he would be involved in the child’s life, if he would stay now and a million other things but the words were lost in the back of her throat. The look on his face was what she had seen in her nightmares and she felt the baby kick against her hands reminding her that her feelings were not important anymore, this baby was what mattered most.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay… well, I’m sure you’re tired from your trip,” she mumbled hating the fact that she was making up an excuse to leave because she couldn’t find the right words to talk to him about everything.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma turned away from him to leave the room, her heartbeat thudding away erratically. This was a lot of stress to take at once but at least it was over and done with. Now she wouldn’t be panicking about how the conversation would go, because it had finally happened. It could have been worse, but it also could have been better.</p><p> </p><p>“I am not meant to be a father,” his voice stopped her.</p><p> </p><p>She whirled around to look at him. She desperately wanted to see his face to try to read his reaction, but his back was turned to her again as he was faced towards the window.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta stared out the window looking up at the stars hanging in the navy blue sky. He thought of the distant planets and of the lives that he had taken. Not something he did often unless prompted by his nightmares. How many children had he killed? Now he was responsible for bringing one into this world. It didn’t seem right. He didn’t know how to care for anything or anyone let alone a child. All he cared about now was defeating the androids and Kakarot. He had finally fulfilled his destiny and became a Super Saiyan. As usual, life dealt him an unlucky hand and he didn’t even get to enjoy that without this news being thrown at him. He clenched his jaw tightly. This certainly complicated things.</p><p> </p><p>“Does it look like I’m meant to be a mother, Vegeta? I don’t know what the hell I’m doing either,” Bulma said her voice softening. “The baby is coming whether we are prepared or not.”</p><p> </p><p>He didn’t say anything and he felt her presence there for a while until she left the room. He stared out the window until the stars started to blur together and he went in the bathroom to take a shower and try to wash these unpleasant thoughts away from his mind.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma didn’t go back to her bedroom, realizing that any attempt at sleep right now would be a waste of time. She fixed up a plate of leftovers that resembled a Saiyan like portion and sat down at the table in the kitchen instead. She stared across the table at the empty seat where Vegeta would likely be sitting right now if everything hadn’t gotten so fucked up. She saw flashes of their late night kitchen chats. The night they got barbecue food and she wiped the sauce off of his face. The night he said she could do better. She slammed her eyes shut to try to will the memories away. Tears stung her eyes as she touched her hand to her stomach and she felt her heartbeat thudding away in spite of the fact that it ached inside of her.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Bulma had not been able to rest since her conversation with Vegeta. She needed answers to questions she wasn’t sure how to ask. She had been feeling terrible all morning and felt the only way to resolve this sour feeling was to try to talk to him again. She crawled out of bed and put on a comfortable cotton gray dress and tennis shoes. She tried her best to sneak out of Capsule Corp without being seen by her parents, since she was meant to be staying in bed, and went outside to approach the ship and gravity chamber that was humming with energy.</p><p> </p><p>She dared to look inside and saw Vegeta with blonde hair and blue eyes, just as she had seen Goku and the boy from the future. Her heart swelled with happiness for him realizing that he had in fact reached his goal that he had worked so hard for. She was genuinely excited for him and suddenly forgot all about the original conversation she wanted to have and instead wanted to hear all about how he became a Super Saiyan.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta wiped sweat from his brow as he attempted to control his power. Now that he had ascended, he needed to figure out how stop his power from spiraling into chaos, which was difficult for him to figure out. He was also still trying to learn how to become a Super Saiyan at will, which was not as easy as he had hoped. After hearing the news that he would be a father, he had showered and come right back down to train seeing as he would not be getting any sleep anyhow, and he had a lot of work to do to perfect his new power. He had been attempting to turn into a Super Saiyan without the pressure of a higher gravity level, but found he still needed the extra stress of gravity on his body to coax it out of him.</p><p> </p><p>He felt her ki approaching the spaceship and paused his training wondering what she wanted now. Her ki stayed there for a while and his annoyance grew, he felt his power flickering until he returned back to his normal state. He turned off the gravity simulation and opened the door to see why she was here to pester him. </p><p> </p><p>“What?” he snapped as he opened the door.</p><p> </p><p>She stood there with a big smile on her face, beaming at him.</p><p> </p><p>“Let me guess, you’re here to tell me that you’re having twins,” he grumbled grumpily at her.</p><p> </p><p>Her ki seemed off as though it were fading in and out like a heartbeat. The child’s ki felt significantly stronger than hers, which made sense since it was part-Saiyan, but hers seemed so much weaker even for an Earthling's standard. Something was wrong with her. Her skin was paler than usual and sweat was rolling down her face and sticking her blue bangs to her forehead.</p><p> </p><p>“You did it! I knew you would!” she shouted happily, with tears in her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>She didn’t get to ask him about becoming a Super Saiyan because a stabbing pain between her legs took her breath from her, liquid pooled between her legs and she put her hand to feel and saw blood on her white fingers and staining her gray dress. The last thing she remembered was seeing what almost looked like concern flash across Vegeta’s face for a fleeting second before everything faded to black.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you all again so much for your kind words and kudos!&lt;3 I can't tell you how much it motivates me to get these chapters going. I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter! This one was a fun challenge to write because we all know that Vegeta eventually comes to accept and deeply care for his family over time but that definitely isn't how he starts out! Please if you can leave a comment or kudos to let me know what you think. Baby Trunks is on the way, and before we know it so are the androids... stay tuned!</p><p>xx<br/>Mawr Blaidd Drwg</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Birth</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Disclaimer: I am obviously not a doctor or anywhere near competent in the medical field (bless ya'll who are, you are incredible!) so if anything is not accurate or not medically sound please know that I am just merely a writer trying to write some fanfiction and don't know what I'm talking about! I tried my best! Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bulma’s eyes started to roll backwards as she fell forward, her ki fading with her. Vegeta caught her with ease realizing just how serious whatever was happening with her body was, as he felt her heartbeat faltering and her body convulsing. He didn’t even have time to question whether or not to help her, his body reacted immediately instead. He picked her up in his arms and without even thinking flew straight away to her parents who were enjoying their morning coffee with their strange animals in the conservatory. It was the only time he saw something akin to worry or alarm on the deranged blonde woman’s face and her father who he knew to be very calm and passive also looked concerned.</p><p> </p><p>Dr. Briefs immediately pulled out his phone to contact several on site doctors as well as Bulma’s OB-GYN. “Take her to the medical wing on the south side of the building,” Dr. Briefs instructed and before he had even completed his sentence Vegeta was already out of the room. Once he arrived at the south side he found several staff members waiting for him and instructing him to bring her into the operating room and onto the table. He placed her down onto the table and stared at her blood stained on his hands as he backed away from her and from the table. How many times had he seen blood on his hands? Countless times. He never even thought of it before. This was the first time it had ever seemed to matter to him.</p><p> </p><p>Several different people attended to her on the table. There were about 3 doctors, he assumed they were doctors because they had long white lab coats like Bulma and her father wore and were carrying touch screens. They were talking to one another in hushed tones and Vegeta felt his agitation grow.</p><p> </p><p>“What’s wrong with her?” Vegeta demanded an answer from one of the doctors.</p><p> </p><p>The doctor who was certainly intimidated by a furious looking Vegeta backed away slightly as he stalked toward him.</p><p> </p><p>“T-the nurses are taking her vitals now, it seems that when her water broke, her blood pressure raised to a dangerous level and she lost consciousness.”</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta stared at the doctor as if he was speaking a foreign language not understanding a word of what he meant. How was it even possible for water to break? It was a liquid! It also sounded like they didn’t really know much about anything and he felt anger burning in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t quite grasp the concept of feeling concerned or worried because he had never cared enough to be concerned about someone else before. He hated it. But anger, anger was something he was all too familiar with and he welcomed the feeling.</p><p> </p><p>He stared at Bulma lying helplessly on the table while doctors and nurses began hooking her up to wires and machines, the blood on her dress had spread across her enlarged abdomen. One of the nurses was cutting open her dress. Her ki was still there, a small flicker of light in an infinitely dark abyss, but it was there. The infant’s ki was flaring up with each moment. At least the child didn’t appear to be weak.</p><p> </p><p>“It <strong><em>seems</em></strong>. You mean you don’t actually know what’s wrong or how to fix her?” Vegeta felt his voice rising as he was now shouting at the humans in the room staring at him in horror. She was still unconscious and he didn’t understand why the doctors hadn’t figured out what was wrong yet or why they couldn’t bring her back to consciousness. On Planet Vegeta the doctors would have figured this out in seconds or they would have been slaughtered.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta saw a flash of his own mother, her black lifeless eyes staring ahead at nothingness and he pushed the visual away, something he had gotten quite good at. This was the first time he thought about it in many years, he had almost forgotten how his mother had died during childbirth with Tarble. Seeing Bulma on the table in front of him and feeling her ki unraveling brought back the unwanted memories. He had been there when she died, though he was not supposed to be. He had been given specific orders to not go near the delivery room, but he wasn’t very good at taking orders and he was curious about seeing his brother. He remembered standing in the doorway to the room and hearing his brother crying and his mother’s screams gone completely silent. He didn’t remember much about his mother other than her death.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta the doctors know what they are doing, Bulma is in good hands,” Dr. Briefs said finally coming in to the room and trying in vain to calm Vegeta down, who was clenching his fists and about ready to strangle someone. “They know Bulma’s case very well and have been taking care of her throughout her entire pregnancy.”</p><p> </p><p>“We will need to perform an emergency caesarean as her body is too weak for birth. She needs to be in stable condition before we can do that or her life and the baby will be at risk,” the doctor that Vegeta had shouted at explained to Dr. Briefs.</p><p> </p><p>This was not supposed to happen. He had barely even had enough time to process the idea that he would be a father and now it might not even be happening and Bulma might not even survive it. He should have never gone near her. The one person who had ever shown care and kindness to him might die because he was too weak to control himself. The anger in the pit of his stomach coiled and wrapped itself around his lungs.</p><p> </p><p>“You pathetic humans are completely useless,” Vegeta growled feeling his power level ricocheting out of his control.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta saw the flash of his mother again as he stared down at Bulma. A new flash came forward, his father emotionlessly telling the doctors to take his mother’s body away, completely unaffected by her passing. Vegeta felt his heart beat pounding away against his ribcage like a hammer. He had to leave the room; he could not stay here another moment. He stormed out, not bothering to turn around when he heard Dr. Briefs calling for him. His power level began to spiral out of control as he took off from the ground of Capsule Corp and flew to the sky, his black hair flashing yellow through the thick gray clouds.</p><p> </p><p>///</p><p> </p><p>Bulma awoke to chaos. Her vision was blurred and bright lights flooded her view. She could hear Vegeta shouting, though she couldn’t quite hear his words, as if she had been swimming underwater and everything was muffled and distorted. She could hear the beep of a heart monitor, in time with her heartbeat pounding against her skull. An oxygen mask was covering her mouth and she took a few deep gulps of it to try to help bring her consciousness into better focus. It felt like she was waking up in the middle of a dream and then her brain seemed to catch up and she thought of the baby. She remembered the blood on her fingers from her dress. She felt a sudden stabbing pain cramping between her legs and her heart started to race. She moved her fingers and then brought her hands up to her face to try to pull the mask off.</p><p> </p><p>“Is the baby okay?” she managed to ask.</p><p> </p><p>One of the doctors was immediately at her side helping her with the oxygen mask.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes Miss Briefs, the baby is safe. Your blood pressure went dangerously high when your water broke and you had a mild seizure. There was quite a bit of blood loss, but your condition seems to be stable now,” the doctor said, coming more clearly into her view. “Thankfully your husband brought you here so quickly and we were able to get you out of critical condition. Once your blood pressure is stable we will need to perform an emergency C-section, which we had discussed as a potential option for your birthing plan due to the size of the baby and nature of your pregnancy.”</p><p> </p><p>Her vision seemed to finally come into complete clarity and she realized that she was in one of the operating rooms at Capsule Corp. There were several doctors, nurses and both of her parents in the room. Bulma’s mind was reeling from all of the information that her brain was still trying to process. Hearing the baby was safe put her at ease, she would figure out the rest. But for some reason the part that stuck out most was the word <em>husband</em>. If she had been in any other possible situation she would have laughed, or maybe cried but she also couldn’t stop the flutter in her chest at hearing the word. She searched for Vegeta knowing that she had heard his voice before and desperately wanted comic relief and to see his horrified reaction at being called her husband, but he was nowhere in sight.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank goodness you’re okay,” Mrs. Briefs said coming to Bulma’s side and holding her hand. Bulma wondered if her mother had been the one to tell the doctors that Vegeta was her husband.</p><p> </p><p>“You should have been resting in bed. Your blood pressure was one of the reasons that you were put on bed rest in the first place,” Dr. Briefs said with concern. “It’s a good thing Vegeta was there, he flew you straight to me. Though he certainly didn’t need to be so rude and yell at all of the doctors and nurses that were just trying to help. I think he was worried.”</p><p> </p><p>“Where did he go?” Bulma asked, reeling at the idea that Vegeta was worried about her and the baby.</p><p> </p><p>“He stormed out of here a few minutes ago,” Dr. Briefs replied.</p><p> </p><p>She felt disappointment bubble inside of her, realizing he chose not to stay for the birth of their child, and that he chose not to be by her side. It’s not like they discussed it or even had time to discuss it; she had finally told him she was pregnant last night so they hadn’t quite come up with a parenting plan yet. She wasn’t surprised, after all there was nothing between them anymore and he openly expressed how he did not care for anything or anyone. She knew all of this rationally, but it still ached something fierce within her.</p><p> </p><p>The rest of the birth was a hazy blur. Bulma wasn’t entirely convinced that it wasn’t all a really crazy dream. The surgery had been a success and the moment that she heard her baby cry, she was overwhelmed with emotion. She had spent so much time talking to it and nurturing it. She had also spent so much time worrying about how Vegeta would take the news and what would happen when it was born. All of that left her thoughts as they placed her baby into her arms on the operating table. Blue eyes matched her own and stared attentively at her. The baby frowned and even though the child did not have his dark features, all she could see was Vegeta.</p><p> </p><p>“Congratulations, it’s a healthy baby boy!” the doctor announced proudly.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma beamed with joy and smiled down at the bundle lying against her chest as tears streamed down her face.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>///</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Vegeta flew around for a bit until he found a desolate plane to unleash some of his fury on. He was able to become a Super Saiyan without the stress of gravity or any immediate physical danger, which seemed to be the only other ways that set him off previously. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, it seemed as though stress on his emotions somehow played a key role in his ascension in this particular instance. If he could harness those emotions and control them he would be able to become a Super Saiyan as easily as flicking on a switch. The emotional stress had been so potent when he was still at Capsule Corp, that he had to actively try not to turn into a Super Saiyan, the irony not lost on him.</p><p> </p><p>The problem was that these <em>emotions,</em> he <strong>hated</strong> them. He hated the way he felt right now, even in his Super Saiyan form. His body felt restless, tense and as though he were a ticking time bomb with no self-control. He had left, and didn’t even know if Bulma or his child survived. It shouldn’t matter to him. He should not care; it was all meaningless to him anyhow. He had given in to his physical needs with an Earthling and somehow got stuck with a child, which had been <em>her</em> fault. She got herself into this mess in the first place, so she should have to deal with it on her own. It didn’t matter. It did <strong>not</strong> <em>matter</em>. He saw the flash of his father’s face showing no emotion whatsoever as his mother died. Imagine what he would think seeing his son, the prince of the Saiyans unraveling over a weak Earth woman who he had no formal connection to. But even as he tried to convince himself of this, his hands shook as he clenched his fists. He tried to close his eyes and rid himself of the image of seeing Bulma covered in her own blood on the table hooked up to all of those machines.</p><p> </p><p>He could see little else and his power was spiraling out of control again. He had to know the outcome or he may blow up the planet while waiting. He considered that as not the worst option for a moment before he left the plane, which had become one large crater, and made his way back to Capsule Corp. Rain started to fall from the heavy clouds and splattered across his face furiously as he flew with great speed. By the time he arrived back it was nearly evening and the rain clouds were beginning to fade into the darkening sky.</p><p> </p><p>He made his way through the building, and he was able to sense her ki, she had survived. He managed to get some sort of semblance of control on himself and his hair flickered back to its usual black flame. He silently approached the room trying to listen to what the doctors and nurses were saying. He could hear Bulma crying and he wondered if the child had not made it through the birth.</p><p> </p><p>“A beautiful healthy boy! We have a grandson!” he heard Dr. Briefs say proudly to Mrs. Briefs who was also crying.</p><p> </p><p>A son.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta felt his heartbeat hammering against his throat unable to sort out his own thoughts on the matter. All pure blooded Saiyan first born were male, but he wasn’t sure what would happen in these circumstances. He almost felt something akin to relief. Although he obviously did not know how to care for a child or be a father, at least a boy he could understand.</p><p> </p><p>He left Capsule Corp and took to the sky once more. His brain buzzed with about a million different thoughts. But above all of the waves ebbing and flowing one thought rang clearly above the rest.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I have a son.</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Vegeta landed in front of the Capsule Corp building and walked into the complex. Even though it was well into the night he could sense Bulma’s ki in the kitchen rather than in her room. He avoided the kitchen and instead walked into his room and just as he was about to go take a shower, a blood-curdling scream thundered into his sensitive ears. The brat. Vegeta sighed, choosing to ignore it, and resume his original plan of showering, especially after training for so long in the deserted grasslands. His head finally felt clear and he was improving every minute and perfecting the art of becoming and maintaining Super Saiyan. He had complete control over his power and his <em>emotions</em>, finally feeling like himself once again. He had not returned since he learned that Bulma and his son had survived. He was sick of hunting animals for food and desired to sleep in a regular bed after sleeping on grass for so long. At least when he trained in space he had plenty of amenities. He had actually missed the comforts of Capsule Corp he realized with disgust.</p><p> </p><p>He got into the bathroom and turned the shower water on. The screaming seemed to somehow intensify and it felt as though every note from the cry scratched against his brain. He growled before shutting the water off and storming out of his room. The sound continued to get louder with each step that he took and he was half convinced that some sort of demonic energy possessed the child. The child was in Bulma’s room in a small open box with bars on it next to her bed, but she was nowhere to be found.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta stared down at the infant screaming in the box prison and blue eyes framed with purple eyebrows stared back at him. Of course he had to have startling Earthling features. As if the fact that his son wasn’t a full-blooded Saiyan wasn’t enough of a slap in the face, now there was a physical reminder. The child was also wearing a ridiculous dark blue head garment. The tears immediately ceased the moment they locked eyes and instead his blue eyes became wide with wonder and he couldn’t help but think of Bulma and how sometimes she could give him the very same look as though she was trying to solve an impossible puzzle. Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest and stared back at the child, still not fully understanding how it was even possible that he was a father in the first place.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, at least you got him to stop crying.”</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta had been so caught up in seeing his child for the first time that he hadn’t even been paying attention to sensing Bulma’s ki entering the room. He snapped his head away from the child to stare at Bulma standing in the doorway. She looked exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes as though she hadn’t slept in days and had a small white blanket thrown over her shoulder. Her blue hair was thrown together on top of her head as though she hadn’t checked a mirror when she had done so. Her ki felt normal, though slightly depleted, much better than it had the day she gave birth. Her body had resumed to its normal size, though she had a large oversized t-shirt on over sweatpants as if still dressing for when she was pregnant.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma had been getting herself something to eat, seeing as she hadn’t eaten in what felt like days since every time she tried to eat, Trunks cried. Trunks had finally fallen asleep, so she grabbed the baby monitor and as soon as she opened the refrigerator, he started screaming at the top of his lungs. She yelled into the fridge in frustration before slamming it shut and hurrying back up to her room only to hear complete silence once she got there. She saw the silhouette of Vegeta’s flame hair standing in front of the crib and felt a small smile on her face. She knew he’d be back eventually, though she thought he would have returned sooner, but at least he seemed curious about his son. Her smile faded when she remembered she was supposed to be mad at him.</p><p> </p><p>“There’s something wrong with him,” Vegeta said nodding towards the child.</p><p> </p><p>“What do you mean,” Bulma immediately started to panic, flicked the light switch and practically shoved Vegeta out of the way to run towards the crib. These had been the most stressful months of her life. At any moment she was half convinced that she would do something to accidentally harm her baby especially being so sleep deprived and now having Vegeta confirm that there was indeed something wrong with Trunks threw her into a deep pool of anxiety. She didn’t think motherhood would be easy, but she also had no idea it would be this difficult. Being in a constant state of fight or flight was seriously taking a toll on her.</p><p> </p><p>“His cries are too loud,” Vegeta clarified. “I thought my ears would start bleeding.”</p><p> </p><p>“You JERK you made me think there was actually something wrong with him,” Bulma said through gritted teeth as she lifted Trunks out of the crib and into her arms. “He’s a baby, that’s what they do. They cry… a lot. More than I thought they did I’ll admit. The doctor said it’s normal, I’ve already asked.”</p><p> </p><p>“You coddle him too much, he stopped the moment I entered the room,” Vegeta said nonchalantly.</p><p> </p><p>“He probably saw your stupid face and got scared,” Bulma snapped as she tucked her arm underneath of Trunks’ head. He did not take his eyes off of Vegeta the entire time, still staring at him in wide-eyed wonder.</p><p> </p><p>“He doesn’t seem scared,” Vegeta pointed out. “Besides, if you stupid Earthlings used nursery capsules, then you wouldn’t have to deal with the incessant crying.”</p><p> </p><p>“What are nursery capsules?” Bulma asked curiously as she rocked Trunks in her arms.</p><p> </p><p>“When Saiyans were born, they were put into an incubator type of regeneration tank where they are given all of the nutrients, food and rest that their bodies needed to grow and become strong,” Vegeta replied. “The infants were then monitored by scientists to see their growth and power levels to determine their future path. There wasn’t any of this crying nonsense.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ve gotta be honest, I’m not sure if it’s the sleep deprivation talking or what, but I’m not hating that idea right now,” Bulma said in amazement, thinking about how much easier her life would be if she had a nursery capsule.</p><p> </p><p>Silence overwhelmed them as they stared at one another. Bulma hated how awkward it was between them now. There was so much to be said, it was as though they didn’t even know where to begin. She had been hurt that he wasn’t there when Trunks was born, though she wasn’t surprised. And then he vanished into thin air for almost 3 months. But she also knew that he had been the one to bring her to safety after she collapsed the day he was born, so he was there for her and Trunks when it mattered most.</p><p> </p><p>She held Trunks out to him to take and Vegeta backed away and stared at her as though she were insane. “Well, aren’t you going to hold your son?” Bulma asked him impatiently.</p><p> </p><p>“Why would I want to hold him?” Vegeta questioned with genuine confusion written across his face.</p><p> </p><p>“…Because he’s your son, Vegeta,” Bulma answered incredulously.</p><p> </p><p>“Saiyans don’t <em>hold</em> their children. They are taken from their mothers after their first cries and put into their designated nursery capsule. By the time they come out, they are ready to learn how to walk and train. Infants are fine on their own, they don’t need all of this incessant coddling that you humans obsess over, that sort of behavior produces weak and spoiled children.”</p><p> </p><p>Bulma stared at Vegeta in shock. How barbaric! She couldn’t even imagine not being able to hold Trunks. As exhausting and shell-shocking as motherhood had been for her, she loved her baby more than she thought was even possible and holding him and connecting with him had been so incredibly important to her.</p><p> </p><p>“That honestly explains a lot,” Bulma said thoughtfully realizing that Vegeta was never held by his parents. No wonder he was so emotionally stunted. He went from being thrown into a baby pod, to training how to kill, to working for Frieza and taking over planets. The thought made her feel incredibly sad and her hormonal imbalance almost sent her spiraling into a crying fit.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, Earthlings <em>do</em> hold their children. There are actually a lot of scientific studies that prove how harmful it can be for a child’s mental health and stability to not be held or given any signs of affection. Connecting with parents is seen as a really important part of an infant’s development on Earth,” Bulma said sniffling away her tears.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s why you humans are so weak and pathetic,” Vegeta sneered.</p><p> </p><p>“Well as much as you don’t want to hear it or admit it, your child is part human so you need to get over it,” Bulma said taking a step closer to Vegeta and holding Trunks out to him. Trunks waved his chubby little arms towards Vegeta making gurgling noises. Bulma felt her heart bursting at how excited he appeared to be at seeing Vegeta. Vegeta however did not share the same excitement as his son and looked utterly horrified.</p><p> </p><p>“Unless you’re scared, of course. Who would have thought that the Saiyan prince would be terrified of holding a baby,” she challenged him with a smirk. Vegeta narrowed his eyes at her knowing that she was doing this on purpose, but he begrudgingly obliged.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t forget to support his head,” Bulma worried.</p><p> </p><p>“He’s part Saiyan, his head is fine,” Vegeta stated in irritation as he grabbed the infant and held him underneath of his arms so that he was eye level with him, his chubby legs dangling. The stare off between them continued, the baby seemed so fascinated by him. Vegeta couldn’t explain the strange feeling coming over him as he stared back at the child. His child. His son. It almost felt like pride. He also felt a sense of duty and protection but he pushed it away and swallowed it down.</p><p> </p><p>“His name is Trunks,” Bulma said trying not to let her emotions get the best of her as she watched Vegeta hold his son for the first time. Though this was not what she had meant when she said, “hold him” it was certainly a start and obviously a very big step for Vegeta. She knew if she burst into tears he would likely hand the baby back and leave immediately.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s an absolutely ridiculous name,” Vegeta sighed.</p><p> </p><p>“Well maybe you would have had a say in the name if you had actually been there when he was born,” Bulma snapped at him. His eyes left the child’s face and met her hurt blue eyes.</p><p> </p><p>He left because he couldn’t see it happen again, what had happened to his mother. Not to Bulma, not for his own child. He had come back anyhow, but made sure to do so without being seen. He would never tell her any of this, of course.</p><p> </p><p>“I had more important things to do. I had to finish training, since you interrupted me in the first place,” Vegeta said instead. He could feel her ki flare up and he couldn’t help his smirk knowing that his words would certainly put her in a rage. Trunks seemed to sense her fury too as he turned his attention towards his mother and almost looked worried. He was learning young about the wrath of Bulma Briefs.</p><p> </p><p>“So sorry for interrupting your training with my near death experience,” Bulma spat sarcastically. Thinking of her difficult birth reminded her that he had been the one to bring her to safety and her anger dissolved away.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you, by the way,” Bulma said quietly.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta stared at her in almost amusement at how quickly her emotions changed with each passing second. A moment ago she was nearly crying, then she was yelling at him and now she was thanking him. It had been a while since they last spoke to one another but he didn’t remember her being <em>this </em>insane. He couldn’t keep up.</p><p> </p><p>“If you hadn’t alerted my parents and brought me to safety so quickly I might have died or possibly even lost Trunks,” she said, her voice in almost a whisper. She really had wished she hadn’t been unconscious and was able to witness him carrying her around and yelling at a bunch of doctors, the thought alone was enough to make her heart beat stutter. But then of course he bailed and disappeared and wasn’t even there to see his son being born. It was just like Vegeta to finally do something unselfish and then vanish immediately afterward in an attempt to cancel it out somehow.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta shifted uncomfortably where he stood, still holding the child. He didn’t like this conversation one bit. It was horrible enough that he had to catch her to stop her from collapsing to the ground and cracking open her weak human skull and carry her to her parents. But then to have to deal with incompetent Earthlings that didn’t seem to know what was wrong with her was so frustrating it was a miracle he didn’t blow up Capsule Corp.</p><p> </p><p>It bothered him that he gave it a second thought and that he actually was trying to control his anger and power. That he actually worried about her and the child’s safety and well-being. It made him feel weak and he hated it. This was exactly why he should have never gone near her in the first place. He again thought of his father not caring one bit that his mother had died. Having any sort of attachment was a weakness and a weakness could be exploited and twisted and not the sort of thing a warrior should waste his time thinking about. If he was going to defeat the androids and Kakarot then there could be absolutely no weaknesses or attachments in his way.</p><p> </p><p>The baby reached his small hand forward and grabbed at Vegeta’s hair pulling at it tightly. If Vegeta hadn’t been so annoyed, he would have taken pride at how tight of a grip his son had at such a young age. Bulma found herself laughing from seeing how happy Trunks was juxtaposed with how irritated Vegeta was. Vegeta unclasped his tiny fist from his hair and shoved the baby back towards Bulma.</p><p> </p><p>Bulma wished she had been able to take a picture, not knowing if Vegeta would ever hold his son again. The thought made her sad, though also hopeful that he agreed to do it in the first place after sharing with her how his culture did not do anything like that at all. Her emotions felt all over the place. On the one hand she was grateful to have had this experience and witness Vegeta meeting his son. On another she was so incredibly angry and resentful that Vegeta was able to just come and go as he pleased and take no responsibility for his child meanwhile she hadn’t slept in 3 months and had put her life on hold to keep their baby alive.</p><p> </p><p>“So are you going to stick around to train before the androids arrive or are you going to disappear again?” Bulma asked, trying not to sound bitter.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta clenched his jaw, sensing tight-lipped resentment in her voice. It wasn’t his fault that she didn’t have a nursery capsule and had to deal with all of this nonsense on her own. The child was alive and so was she and now he had way more important things to worry about.</p><p> </p><p>“I will train where there is little distraction,” he muttered.</p><p> </p><p>“So I’m guessing that means you’re going to disappear again,” Bulma said rolling her eyes. “I mean I didn’t exactly think you’d be helping me change diapers but I also thought you would have more resolve than to blatantly avoid your own son.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not avoiding him,” Vegeta snapped, although after the words left his mouth he realized he probably was avoiding him. “I have more important things to worry about than a screaming infant, unless of course you’ve forgotten, the androids are arriving in less than 9 Earth months.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not stupid, I know when they’re coming,” Bulma said through gritted teeth as she readjusted Trunks in her arms. “I obviously know it’s important for you to prepare and train. I’m just saying you could try to be more present.”</p><p> </p><p>Silence once again. Trunks had been quietly following the conversation looking back and forth at Vegeta and Bulma as they argued. He frowned and tears started to well up in his eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Great, now you’ve upset Trunks,” Bulma muttered as she rocked him back and forth.</p><p> </p><p>“I think you’re the one who upset him with your incessant jabbering,” Vegeta grumbled.</p><p> </p><p>A thought suddenly occurred to her. Did this make her son technically royalty now? Her and Vegeta were not married or anything like that, so she wondered whether or not Trunks was considered a prince now.</p><p> </p><p>“Wait, so does this make Trunks a prince then? I know he’s not a full-blooded Saiyan, but he is your son. And if he’s a prince then does that make you a king?” Bulma wondered out loud.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta stared at her and his eyebrows knitted together in fury. He didn’t even know if his father would have accepted this child as the heir to their royal bloodline. Not that it mattered anyhow. His father was long dead and the planet long destroyed.</p><p> </p><p>“I will <em>never </em>be a king. That privilege was reserved for my father and he is gone with the rest of the planet,” Vegeta spat before storming out of the room.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, looks like I unintentionally hit a nerve there,” Bulma whispered as she cradled Trunks against her and sighed heavily. “I have a feeling your father will not be training at Capsule Corp.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Bulma staggered slightly as she tried to find her footing. So she <em>may</em> have had a few too many glasses of wine at the Capsule Corps product launch party. This had been her first night actually out on her own since before Trunks was born. Her mom had happily agreed to watch him for the night and she couldn’t wait to get out and show off how wonderful she looked since returning back to her usual figure. She had even had a dress custom made to show off just how amazing she looked. She secretly hoped to run into the paparazzi so that headlines could read about how awesome she looked instead of Kami knows what they were saying about her when she was pregnant. The launch party went off without a hitch and the new capsule product that her and her father had worked on was already receiving rave reviews, so she thought she was more than entitled to have a few glasses of wine in celebration.</p><p> </p><p>The problem was, it had been so long since she last drank between being pregnant and breast-feeding that a few too many glasses of wine felt like a few bottles to her. She wasn’t even sure what time it was. Her father had left the party hours ago and she had stayed behind to talk with several clients, something she was far better at doing than her dad was anyway. She stumbled in her red pointed stilettos and finally made her way to the kitchen. Bulma kicked the heels off, tossing them across the room not wanting to stumble in them any longer. She just needed to drink about 3 gallons of water and make some instant ramen and she would be good as new! She flipped the switch of the kitchen light and nearly toppled over when she saw Vegeta’s black flame hair and his bare back sitting at the table eating. She hadn’t seen him in months and was certainly not expecting to see him in the kitchen. Nor did she feel ready to deal with him after a night of drinking.</p><p> </p><p>“Vegeta! You scared me!” Bulma gasped clutching at her chest trying to stop her racing heart. “Why are you sitting here eating in the dark, ya weirdo?”</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta didn’t even bother to turn around to look at her as he ate and finished his mouthful of instant ramen.</p><p> </p><p>“Not my fault that you haven’t figured out how to read ki and sense that I was here. Even your especially dumb Earth friends figured out how to do that. Saiyan eyesight is far superior to yours, I don’t need those annoying bright lights to see,” Vegeta replied in a clipped tone.</p><p> </p><p>He had been back for 5 seconds and she was already annoyed with his attitude.</p><p> </p><p>“Well seeing as you’ve been pulling a disappearing act lately, I figured I wouldn’t see you ‘til you were fighting the androids in 2 weeks,” Bulma replied, concentrating very hard on not slurring her words.</p><p> </p><p>“Did you magically become a warrior while I was gone? Why in the hell would you be on the battlefield when the androids arrive?” Vegeta snapped back, still not turning around to talk to her.</p><p> </p><p>“Well excuuuse me for wanting to get a look at the androids and see what the hype is all about,” Bulma said throwing her hands up and rolling her eyes. She walked past him trying her best not to stumble while walking.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta nearly dropped his chopsticks as he watched her walking past him and towards the cupboards. She was wearing the tightest black dress he had ever seen, barely leaving anything to the imagination, which his was already running rampant. The end of the dress, which was already extremely short, rode up as she reached upward trying to grab something from one of the top cupboards, faltering slightly as she came back down. Her ki felt completely off balance in a way he hadn’t sensed in a very long time. He realized that she was inebriated. She whirled around to face him, suddenly forgetting what she was looking for in the cupboards.</p><p> </p><p>He wished she hadn’t turned around, as it made matters much worse. The dress had thin straps that looked as though they could barely hold the dress up in the first place and it had a plunging neckline. It was as though she was trying to prove something by wearing this particular outfit. Her blue hair was cut so that it lined up with her chin and her bangs fell neatly over her eyes. He remembered vaguely when he arrived today that there was some sort of event for the company, which he had easily avoided as he simply wanted to train, shower and get real food. He had tried to fall asleep but gave up and came down to get a snack when he felt her ki approaching and throwing things down the hallway. The event was why she was dressed like this. It was her version of a battle tactic, lure potential clients in with the distraction of her appearance and then selling them with her intelligence and capability. He had to admit it was a good tactic, especially because even he felt distracted.</p><p> </p><p>Her eyes met his for the first time since she found him in the kitchen and although the wine made her feel like she was sitting on a boat or a fast moving carousel, the look on his face was unmistakable. She couldn’t help but feel her heart beat start to race. She knew that look. That look was the reason Trunks existed. Trunks. Her son. <em>Their </em>son. That’s right, she was still pissed at him. So that look wasn’t going to work this time. Right! Right?</p><p> </p><p>“You are a reckless fool if you come to the battlefield, you will just get in the way,” Vegeta finally said trying to focus back onto the conversation and not on how she would look underneath of him.</p><p> </p><p>“Last time I checked, you’re not in charge of me,” Bulma replied haughtily, sticking her tongue out at him. She turned around again remembering that she had been looking for ramen and approached the cupboards once more. She found one last cup and reached for it, nearly falling over once again before grabbing it and finding her balance.</p><p> </p><p>When she turned around, Vegeta was standing up now and was dangerously close to her. “Well a-at least you left me one,” Bulma stuttered clenching the cup tightly. Why did she have to drink so much wine? Her resolve was completely gone and it didn’t help that he was only wearing sweat pants that hung low on his hips.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta clenched his jaw as he approached her, trying to push these ridiculous thoughts away. The thought occurred to him that this would likely be the last opportunity between them. He had no intention of staying here after slaughtering the androids and she would probably not let him near the child after he defeated Kakarot. For some reason that didn’t sit right with him, not seeing his son, even though he had made absolutely no effort to see him since the night he met him. He pushed that thought away. He already had one child that he didn’t know how to be a father to; he didn’t need another one. He had far better self-control now. He wasn’t going to let this happen again. He was a Super Saiyan! He repeated these words in his mind over and over again trying to ignore her scent filling his nostrils. It didn’t mean he couldn’t have a little bit of fun.</p><p> </p><p>“I suspect even if I was in charge of you, you wouldn’t listen.”</p><p> </p><p>He was closer to her now than before, barely inches away from her face. His words sent a chill down her spine that hit her between her legs. It didn’t seem fair. She was not up for his verbal mind games in her inebriated condition. Her back was pressed against the counter and her trembling legs made standing up difficult.</p><p> </p><p>“You’ve got that right,” she replied trying to find oxygen and will away her thoughts clouding her judgment.</p><p> </p><p>Silence hummed intensely between them and Bulma desperately wished things were different and that they could go back to before he left to train in space. The kindling. There was something so tangible between them and there <em>still</em> was, she could feel it even in her drunk state. What had happened? It felt deeper than just Trunks. She wished she could just ask him but also knew she wouldn’t get a proper answer anyway. She thought of the plant growing in spite of the lack of sun and realized he had uprooted himself from the safe environment and thrown himself back into the darkness. She had no idea how to get him back out, and honestly didn’t know if she could handle the backlash of trying. She had already gone through too much and it wasn’t just herself that she had to worry about now. She had to think of Trunks.</p><p> </p><p>“Well at least you’re finally admitting that I’m right,” Vegeta’s voice slithered against her ear.</p><p> </p><p>“I wouldn’t go that far,” Bulma replied weakly before, slipping out of the hypnosis and away from him, so that she was no longer backed up against the counters. Vegeta retreated away from her and Bulma had to blink several times to try to get clarity in her moving vision. She survived. She made it and she showed self-control! Ha! Take that Vegeta. She realized suddenly that the ramen cup was no longer in her hand. Had she dropped it? She searched the floor around her only to see Vegeta peeling off the lid, holding the cup in his hands.</p><p> </p><p>“You asshole! Give me back my cup!” Bulma yelled stomping over to him.</p><p> </p><p>Vegeta easily dodged her feeble attempts to try to grab the cup from his hands and he laughed at how her already weak instincts were further impaired from her inebriation. It was almost too easy.</p><p> </p><p>“I need that more than you or I’m going to be hungover tomorrow, this isn’t funny!” Bulma groaned loudly.</p><p> </p><p>“What is hungover?” Vegeta asked curiously as he continued to wave the cup over her head and she tried to grab it from him.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s when you drink too much and your body gets dehydrated. You get a horrific headache and sometimes throw up. It’s the worst. If you drink enough water and get electrolytes in your body before going to sleep then sometimes you can avoid it,” Bulma explained while still trying to get her ramen cup from him.</p><p> </p><p>“Well you shouldn’t have drank that much then if you didn’t want to suffer the consequences.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, thank you so much for that insight captain obvious!” Bulma shrieked.</p><p> </p><p>“Quit your whining, there’s 3 other cups stashed in the cabinet over the fridge,” he said realizing that the volume of her voice scratching against his eardrums was no longer worth torturing her.</p><p> </p><p>“What do you mean stashed? Have you been hiding my ramen cups from me?” Bulma gasped as she approached a cabinet that held random Tupperware containers and lids and saw several cups of instant ramen shoved behind them.</p><p> </p><p>“You jerk! I thought I was going crazy every once in a while one of my cups would disappear!” Bulma whirled around to glare at Vegeta who was laughing as he left the kitchen.</p><p> </p><p>Even in her annoyance, Bulma couldn’t help the warmth filling her chest at hearing his laughter.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Bulma packed up her vehicle and buckled Trunks inside of his car seat. She looked around hoping that she could at least see Vegeta before they left, but she hadn’t seem him all week. Then again he would probably get mad knowing that she was going to go check out the androids even though he told her not to. She also wanted to show Trunks off to all of her friends and couldn’t wait to see the look of surprise on their faces. She had sworn Yamcha to secrecy not to say anything and her friends never really paid any mind to the paparazzi so it was likely they would have no idea about Trunks or about Vegeta being his father.</p><p> </p><p>She couldn’t believe he was nearly a year old now, and that the 3 years had already passed. Time had slipped so quickly away from her. Bulma got into the car next to Trunks and powered it on. She checked her watch seeing that it was almost 9 and set her GPS for the island 9 miles southwest of South City, just as the boy from the future had told Goku. As she lifted the car up into the air, she couldn’t help but feel a cold feeling coiling in her gut. It was something akin to dread, though she couldn’t explain why. Between Goku and Vegeta these androids didn’t stand a chance!</p><p> </p><p>“Okay little guy, time for us to go see the androids and watch your daddy fight!” Bulma announced, trying to push away the feeling in her stomach. Trunks stared up at her and clapped his chubby arms together. She smiled at her son, but the cold nagging feeling in her gut remained as the vehicle flew off into the distance.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you all once again for your encouraging and kind words! It really does help motivate me to get these chapters done especially when I'm getting a bit of writers block! I imagined that Bulma had a really difficult pregnancy and birth with Trunks which was why Vegeta was so adamant about sticking around and not even training when she was pregnant with Bulla in Super (and also because she guilted him for not being more present). As far as my research could tell, they never seemed to discuss Vegeta's mother in the series or manga, so I thought it was important to explore that topic!</p><p>We've come to the close for the first part of this series! I had a great time writing this and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I am sooo excited to write the next part of the series because I think A LOT changes for Vegeta after he meets Trunks from the future realizing it is his son and watching him die and all of that good character development stuff! So please stay tuned for the second part of the series coming your way soon! </p><p>xx<br/>Mawr Blaidd Drwg</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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